Police use thermal imaging to capture escaped convict

SERIOUS concerns have been raised about security and operational controls in both policing and correctional security environments following multiple escape incidents.

This weekend police confirmed the re-arrest of convicted rapist, Jakob September, who escaped from Helderstroom Maximum Correctional Centre in Caledon on Saturday.

September, originally from Riversdale, was serving a 28-year sentence for violent sexual offences. 

Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said: “Following the escape of an inmate from a correctional facility in Caledon on Saturday morning, a well-coordinated search team was established comprising of the SAPS Drone Unit, Visible Policing, Public Order Police, K9 Unit, Private Security and the Department of Correctional Service, led to the re-arrest of the inmate late Saturday night.

“Hampered by difficult terrain and darkness the SAPS Drone Unit was mobilized to assist the members on the ground with the search. Extensive search efforts paid off when thermal imaging technology was used by the Drone Unit to locate the inmate.” 

SAPS members went into a river and arrested September, Twigg added. 

DA NCOP Member on Security and Justice Nicholas Gotsell demanded that the Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner and the Minister of Correctional Services urgently appear before Parliament.

“This incident comes on the back of the recent escapes at Wynberg and Strand Police holding cells. Those escapes occurred while detainees were in SAPS custody, whilst this escape happened inside a maximum-security correctional facility - the place where security is supposed to be at its strongest.”

Gotsell said Helderstroom is intended to house some of the most dangerous offenders in the country and it is tasked not only with detention, but with rehabilitation and the protection of the public. 

“A breach at this level indicates a failure at the very heart of the Department of Correctional Services’ security and operational controls.

“When a prisoner serving a sentence for a serious crime walks out of a maximum-security facility, the public is justified in asking whether Correctional Services is capable of performing its constitutional mandate. The escape from a maximum security facility by a single inmate, points to a criminal justice chain that is failing at every stage; from arrest to court process to incarceration.”

Cape Times