ConCourt rules inmates may use personal computers for studies

The Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark judgment ruling that prisoners have the right to use personal computers in their cells to further their education.

The Apex court dismissed the appeal brought by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, the National Commissioner for Correctional Services, and the Head of the Johannesburg Correctional Centre: Medium C, thereby upholding the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in favour of Mbalenhle Sidney Ntuli.

In 2018, Ntuli – who was an inmate at Medium C – challenged the Department of Correctional Services’ (DCS) blanket ban that prohibited inmates from possessing and using computers in their cells.

Inmates’ right to further education upheld

The department’s Policy Procedures on Formal Education Programmes, which govern the use of computers by prisoners who have enrolled for studies and need to use a computer, are the source of the blanket restriction. The policy was approved by the acting commissioner for correctional services on 8 February 2007.

At the time of the Johannesburg High Court application, Ntuli was serving a 20-year imprisonment sentence. He registered with Oxbridge Academy to study computer courses focusing on data processing.

Ntuli has since passed and graduated, but during the time that he was studying, he had required the use of a computer for his course.

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On 27 September 2019, the high court ruled in Ntuli’s favour and ordered the department to allow him to use his personal computer for the duration of his enrolment. The DSC appealed this judgment to the SCA.

On 8 November 2023, the SCA dismissed the appeal and ordered that the department must, in consultation with the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, prepare and implement a revised policy within 12 months, permitting the use of personal computers in cells for study purposes.

The state parties then sought final recourse by appealing the SCA’s judgment to the Constitutional Court.

ConCourt ruled unanimously

On Wednesday, the ConCourt definitively upheld the SCA’s order, finding that the policy limits Ntuli’s right to further education through the blanket ban on the use of computers in cells.

The court ruled unanimously that the entire ban on personal computers in prisoner cells violates the right to education since it prevents the inmates from accessing reading materials for their studies and from completing educational assignments while they are confined to their cells.

The Constitutional Court held that the right to further education clearly includes access to textbooks and other necessary tools, including electronic devices.

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“The duty of the state is to remove barriers to education and actively allow access to the necessary resources to realise the right to education. The department may not impede the fulfilment of the right to further education unless that is justified,” the Constitutional Court emphasised in its reasoning.

“Here, the applicants have failed to comply with their obligations in their limitation of the respondent’s access to the tools necessary for realising the right to further education.”

Additionally, while revising its policy, the court ordered the DCS to allow any inmate enrolled in a recognised tertiary or further educational institution—and whose course requires a computer—to use their personal computer without a modem in their cell.

‘Inmates must access further education’

Lawyers for Human Rights, who represented Ntuli, said the Constitutional Court rightly recognised that inmates must access further education and the tools needed for it to improve their skills and prepare for life after release.

“This is a vindication of our client’s rights, who at the end of the day only wanted to further his education and increase his capabilities. We hope no incarcerated student seeking to upskill themselves has to undergo what Mr Ntuli has experienced,” Nabeelah Mia, Head of Penal Reform and Detention Monitoring Programme for Lawyers for Human Rights, said in a statement.