Prison for Profit
Whistleblowers, former prisoners and an investigative journalist paint a shocking picture of South Africa’s first privatized prison.
documentary 2019
director ILSE & FEMKE VAN VELZEN
producer IFPRODUCTIONS
broadcaster EO
premiered at IDFA 2019
Priority for the controversial private security firm G4S is profit maximization, with underpaid guards and violence against prisoners as the inevitable result.
What happens when governmental and intricate care tasks like detention and rehabilitation are left to market forces and powerful international uncontrolled corporations take over. A phenomenon often started through cost-cutting by governments.
In Prison for Profit, we follow investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins and the lives of former prisoners and prison warders from South Africa’s Mangaung private prison, which is run by the controversial private security firm G4S, a British multi-billion company active on a world-wide scale.
Leaked video footage filmed by prison guards shows the violent face of this notorious private prison from the inside. We expose how this very violent system of profit maximization at a company like G4S works, how this multinational operates this prison and what the far-reaching negative consequences are for society.
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Credits
director ILSE & FEMKE VAN VELZEN
producer IFPRODUCTIONS
broadcaster EO
