The Misery Merchants

Journalists exercise their democratic role in society by holding those in power to account. People have the right to know why and how their government spends tax money on the for-profit incarceration of citizens. The Misery Merchants is a hard-hitting exposé of G4S, the company running a private prison in Mangaung, South Africa. Hopkins presents up-close encounters with prison gangs members who run the prison, frank and revealing interviews with prisoners, and a unique insight into the minds of the warders on the torture squad. This work was produced under the auspices of the Wits Justice Project (WJP), an investigative journalism project of the Journalism Department at the University of the Witwatersrand. The WJP investigates miscarriages of justice within the South African criminal justice system such as wrongful convictions, torture in prisons, prison conditions and other human rights abuses. The WJP’s objective is to contribute towards the improvement of the criminal justice system in South Africa and its conformity with the Constitution and international law.