South African prisons are famously overcrowded. Prison populations are believed to exceed capacity by an overall 33%, although that number jumps to over 200% at some facilities, according to recent reports.
The confined, often overcrowded conditions of prisons make them a breeding ground for disease. In particular, they are a high-risk environment for the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) – a leading cause of death in South Africa. TB spreads in the air when a person with the disease coughs, speaks, or sings.
