Recount after jail ‘escape’
ACCOUNT: Pollsmoor ACCOUNT: Pollsmoor
Pollsmoor Prison was on lockdown on Wednesday night after it was believed one of the inmates had escaped.
But it was simply a case of a “miscount”, officials confirmed on Thursday.
Just after 9pm, following a routine head count at the prison, a male prisoner in Medium B at Pollsmoor Prison could not be accounted for.
Procedures were followed and the prison was on lockdown and a recount was done of prisoners and they soon realised their figures had simply been wrong.
A prison insider had told the Daily Voice: “Pollsmoor is on lockdown, there was an escape at Medium A, so it is no one in or out. It is a male person.
“But we realised the count was out. All is in order, it was a false alarm.”
Logan Maistry, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, says a miscount happens daily at prisons and there had been no escape.
“Everything is in order,” he says.
“We count every day at any prison. When there is a miscount, there is a recount.
“Each centre does what is necessary and the important thing is to make sure the number is right.
“It is the same principle like an account when you deal with large figures.
“There was no escape.”