Behind Prison Walls: Unlocking a Safer South Africa with Edwin Cameron, Rebecca Gore and Sohela Surajpal

"Since the Zuma presidency weakened crime intelligence, violent crime surged, with murder rates rising over 75%. South Africa faces severe femicide, and most murderers evade justice. Prisons fail by perpetuating crime; harsher sentences do not help. Edwin Cameron, after visiting prisons, advocates for reform. Along with colleagues, he suggests abolishing minimum sentences, cash bail, and decriminalizing drug use to improve safety and justice." Jonathan Ball Publishers

What happens when we stop speaking about incarceration and start listening to the lives shaped within it?

In this powerful episode of Nongcebo McKenzie: The Podcast, we sit with the story behind Behind Prison Walls: Unlocking a Safer South Africa with Edwin Cameron, Rebecca Gore and Sohela Surajpal; a book that confronts the realities of the criminal justice system through lived experience, memory, and truth-telling. This is not a sensational account of prison life. It is a careful, courageous exploration of humanity under confinement.

We unpack the emotional, psychological, and social dimensions of life behind prison walls: the weight of isolation, the erosion and reconstruction of identity, the impact on families left on the outside, and the systems that continue to reproduce cycles of silence and stigma. At the heart of this conversation is a question that demands reflection: who do we allow to be seen as fully human, and who do we write off?

This episode invites listeners to sit with discomfort, challenge inherited narratives about crime and punishment, and consider what justice, rehabilitation, and accountability truly mean in a society still reckoning with inequality and exclusion.

Rooted in empathy, context, and clarity, this conversation speaks to readers, activists, policy thinkers, creatives, and anyone willing to engage with stories that are often hidden in plain sight.

The Podcast:
Camera: Mluleki Dlamini & Siyabonga Meyiwa
Sound: Sibusiso 'Dust' Nkosi
Editing: Mluleki Dlamini
Co-ordinator: Phumelele Khambule
Host: Nongcebo Vukile McKenzie

Contact: [e-mail]
View episodes on YouTube : Link ➡️ https://youtube.com/@nvmckenzie?si=y8ZcaOQ0yYqjGhA8

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