A Sacred Opportunity A woman of God takes on Cape Town’s prison gangs to bring release to the captives. b y Krist y n Komarnic k i interview b y S haron G ramb y - S ob u k we
In 1998, while working for the Centre for Conflict Resolution in her native Cape Town, Joanna Thomas walked into a prison for the first time and, unbeknownst to her then, took her first step into a new life. Plagued by overcrowding, Pollsmoor Prison, the largest maximum security prison in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, was at the time held in a virtual stranglehold by the country’s vicious gang culture. Ruled by the “numbers” gangs—the 26s, 27s, and 28s—the prison was rife with the same sadistic initiations, codes of conduct, and hierarchies that ruled gang life on the streets. Unable to protect his desperately outnumbered guards, the prison administrator had contacted the Centre for Conflict Resolution, hoping to reduce violence inside the prison and build better relationships among prisoners, staff, and management. Thomas met with the head of the prison’s admissions center and asked about his vision for the prison. His answer caught her off guard.“He said that he saw the prison as an institution of hope where people’s dignity is restored,” recalls Thomas. “But because of the high level of violence, the prison was very unstable, so he wanted to start with nonviolent conflict resolution training for both staff and inmates. He wanted to transform the culture of the prison.” She was intrigued. Having worked up to that point mainly with students in school settings, Thomas had seen how angry many young people were in the wake of apartheid and how vulnerable they were to gang involvement, which led to either prison or the cemetery. She, too, yearned for transformation. Joanna Thomas poses with inmate Roger, who shows off his Certificate in Adult Basic Education & Training from the University of South Africa. PRISM 2009
20