Goodwood Centre of Excellence or Goodwood Correctional Centre is a medium security

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

Edgemead Edgemead is one of the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. It is one of several garden cities of South Africa, the first being Pinelands in the southern suburbs. Edgemead is mainly residential, and as the name 'garden city' suggests, is noted for it ...

, Cape Town and run by the

South African Department of Correctional Services The Department of Correctional Services is a department of the South African government. It is responsible for running South Africa's prison system. The department has about 34,000 staff and is responsible for the administration of 240 prisons, ...

. Despite its location in Edgemead the prison is named after the nearby neighbourhood of Goodwood.

Background

The centre was established in 1997 to accommodate awaiting trial detainees. Due to overcrowding within the South African prison system – most notably at Pollsmoor,

Drakenstein The Drakenstein mountain opposite Simonsberg Mountain named after ex military man and Colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein is part of the Cape Fold Belt and are in the Western Cape pro ...

, Helderstroom – the centre was converted into a "Centre of Excellence". Thereby allowing it to better accommodate sentenced prisoners in addition to awaiting trial detainees. Due to the prison's focus on prisoner education and reform as well as its better quality prison facilities it has been dubbed a "five-star jail" by the South African media. By 2010/11 the prison had a 113% occupancy rate.

Notable inmates

References

Prisons in South Africa {{prison-stub