Independent Weekly research last week revealed that more than half the people in SA jails had been in jail before, and this figure is changing because more people than ever before are being locked up.

Mr Foley boasted that the government’s law-and-order agenda was driving up prisoner numbers.

But the state has failed to match rising prison numbers with more jail cells. In SA people jailed for a traffic offence share cells with violent offenders. Young people are locked up with adults.

“The Rann Government failure to separate adult and juvenile offenders has breached a 42-year-old international treaty to protect human rights,” Opposition Corrections spokesman Stephen Wade said.

Prison officers are not allowed to speak publicly about atrocious conditions in jail. “If they do, they’ll be in breach of the Public Sector Management Act,” said Public Service Association chief industrial officer Peter Christopher. “They can be sacked for breaking the law.”

One prison officer who spoke to the Independent Weekly on the basis of anonymity said people were dehumanised.

“They are caged and treated like animals so we’ve taught them to behave that way in jail and when they’re finally released into the community.”

It was a very different Mr Foley in 1994. “We should actually be trying to rehabilitate

them; we should be trying to make them deliver a useful contribution to society. However, the government will never do it when it is racking, packing and stacking them in the prisons,” he said while trying to become Minister.

Facilities at the city watch-house are now so poor, says Mr Wade that there is only shower for up to 35 people.

A second, recently-retired prison officer with decades of experience said violence in jail was now a daily threat. “Almost all male prisoners – you could say 100 per cent – get raped at least once and some are repeatedly raped, sometimes gang-raped.

Mr Christopher said prisoners from rival gangs are often housed within the same prison, yet their separation was vital for security.

“We haven’t got the staff to supervise everybody,” said the second officer. “It’s not just them (the inmates) we’ve got to consider. Sometimes we’re so short-staffed we’re worried about our own protection.”

The opposition said yesterday that overcrowding was being soft on crime because increasing prison numbers showed the failure of the government’s approach.

“The community wants the government to stop crime before it happens, not just lock people up after the event,” Mr Wade said. “Would a victim prefer that the person who attacked them is put in prison or that they were not attacked in the first place?”

Mr Mancini said the government was acting as if no-one cared what happened to people once they were locked away and out of sight.

“People do care,” he said. “Their families care, the community cares. It’s just the government that doesn’t.”