For most people, being arrested and detained is frightening, even when you are guilty. Imagine how you feel if you are innocent – dragged off into the unknown world of police vans, holding cells crowded with hardened criminals, facing a court appearance… It’s important to know you have rights in this situation, and to use them.

The police in South Africa have it tough. They face a high crime rate, are not very well trained and they have huge caseloads. They often face danger, many are killed, and daily they deal with gruesome murders, vicious gangsters, violence, drunks, drugged-up people, abusive people. Also, historically, the police force was encouraged to be ruthless and was used to enforce the unjust apartheid system. This type of policing has been difficult to change.

So it’s not hard to see why many officers themselves, still today, can be uncaring, hardened, violent and abusive, ignoring the rights of those they arrest, and abusing their policing power.

And this is exactly why every one of us needs to know about and insist on our rights if we are detained, whether we are guilty or not. You may think you will never be in this situation. Don’t be so certain! Even people who do not think of themselves as ‘criminals’ may be detained, for example as part of a general crime sweep against gangsters in a neighbourhood, because of drunk driving just once, or public drunkenness, or even because of mistaken identity. The police have the right to detain almost anyone they are suspicious of, even without a warrant of arrest from a magistrate. In the story Prison, they could argue these lawful reasons for detaining Mavis:

• they thought she had committed a serious assault – a man had been stabbed and named her as being at the scene

• she was probably drunk or drugged

• she was acting ‘suspiciously’ at night, and might have been about to commit a crime or have already committed one

• they suspected she was carrying a dangerous weapon for no good reason – and indeed one was found on her.

Our Constitution says that people need protection against wrongful arrest and from possible abuse by law enforcers.

Chapter 2.10 Human dignity says we all should have our ‘dignity respected and protected’.

Chapter 2.12 (1) Freedom and security of the person says we must not be unjustly detained or held with trial or treated violently or in ‘in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way’.

The police officers in the story taunted and swore at the prisoners, hit Mavis, threatened her unless she gave them information and stripped her in front of a male officer.

Chapter 2.35 Arrested, detained and accused persons sets out a long list of important rights of a detained and arrested person, that you should read in full (see link in Resources). It includes many rights that were denied to Mavis in the story Prison:

• being at once informed of her right to remain silent, and given a reason for her arrest; experts advise that one says nothing about the case until there is a lawyer present

• being allowed to phone a relative at once; in the story it was a serious problem that she was not allowed to arrange care for her children

• being given access to a lawyer as soon as possible, even if the State has to provide the lawyer (see Resources)

• being given medical care when it was obvious she was unwell

• being held in decent conditions

• as a woman, being stripped and searched in front of a male officer

• being brought to court within 48 hours, and then being charged and given bail or a reason given for continued detention, or released.

As the story showed, if you or anyone you know, are arrested and detained, it is very important to know your rights, demand them and get legal help at once. There are a number of places and organisation that can help, and are listed under the Resources following.