Certainty of detention, prosecution, and conviction for criminals represents one of the most effective deterrents available in any criminal justice system. In South Africa, however, this deterrent is weak. The conviction rate for violent crimes committed against blacks is intolerably low, and witnesses are often reluctant to testify in criminal cases. Certain bail procedures allow persons charged with murder and other serious crimes to be released back into the community pending their trial. South Africa emphasizes imprisonment in its sentencing philosophy, with 193 prisons that house 110,000 prisoners. About 20 percent of all persons held in gaols are on remand awaiting trial. New sentencing policies being contemplated by the South African government will likely increase the number of persons held in prisons to about 400 per 100,000 population. Prison overcrowding is at a crisis point in many prisons; in some instances, up to 50 prisoners are housed in communal cells designed to accommodate half that number. Maximum-security prisoners are housed in primitive conditions, and many prisoners do not have have work and vocational training opportunities. Recreation and related programs are limited in most prisons to hours during which inmates are not locked in their cells. Other deficiencies in South African prisons concern complaint procedures, health care, censorship and access to information, prison gangs, and death row inmates. The need to change South Africa's criminal justice system is discussed in the context of community-based correctional programs and offender rehabilitation. 1 reference and 3 photographs