Scenery shots

Singing

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Sara: Some of South Africa’s most famous prisoners have spent decades locked on the fringes of this beautiful city. Former president Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on Roben Island. He then spent six years here, at Pollsmoor prison. But, now Pollsmoor is home to killers, rapists and armed robbers.

Inside prison/Taliep in cell

Taliep: I’m in for -- I’m not proud of it -- one murder, two attempted murders. I used to see people stab each other, shoot each other, I was a very rough guy.

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Taliep with bird

Sara: Taliep Lewis is serving a seven year sentence. Before he came to jail he killed birds for sport.

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Taliep

Taliep: I used to shooting them with catapults, throw them with stones, sometimes pick their feathers.

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Taliep with bird

Sara: But, now the hands which killed, cradle life.

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Taliep: Getting excited now, seeing food.

Sara: Taliep shares his cramped cell with tiny birds. He’s one of a special group of prisoners, who are hand rearing birds at Pollsmoor prison.

Gresse

Gresse: And it's amazing how these people change.

1:35

Sara: For most of his career as a prison officer, Wikus Gresse kept his love of birds a secret. But, in 1997 he started the Pollsmoor bird project.

He believed that the some inmates could be trusted if they were only given a chance.

Gresse: Look, in every person I believe there is good. You must just find that good, some of them are rough diamonds. Try to get the rough diamond, polish it a bit and you’ll see the beautiful stone.

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Woman and child come to pick up bird

Sara: The prisoners care for the birds, until the birds are old enough to be sold to the public. A share of the proceeds is given to the prisoner, the rest is ploughed back into the project. The operation relies on volunteers and donations. It runs without costing the Department of Correctional Services a cent.

2:12

It’s become a bustling stand alone business. But, for the prisoners, each bird which is sold also has an emotional price.

Taliep: When the people arrived I handed the birds over, but I was feeling very bad because I felt like a part of me is being taken away that minute. Three o’clock when they locked us up I went straight to bed and I went to cry. That’s how I felt, very sad at that moment.

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Inmate with Elsa and Gill

Sara: Elsa Hoffman and Gill Edge are volunteers. They spend their spare time in the prison, teaching the inmates how to care for the birds.

3:10

Elsa

Elsa: The birds definitely do quite a bit for the prisoners. As I've said before, it gives them something to care for, and they realise that the birds are dependent on them for their wellbeing.

3:19

Sara: They have high standards, and any inmate who can’t keep up, risks losing his place in the project. But, Elsa says most of the prisoners invest an extraordinary amount of hard work and emotion in their birds.

3:30

Elsa: I remember quite clearly, right in the beginning, one of the prisoners had a little love bird that died. He couldn’t actually part with this bird, even though it was dead. He buried it in his pot plant, because he wanted the bird to still be with him in his prison, in his cell. He didn't want to part with it -- he couldn't. .

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Inmates with birds

Sara: When it began, few people on the inside or the outside had confidence that the project would work.

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Gresse

Mr Gresse: My first impression that I got from the guys, I said impossible. Forget it, it won't work. Not in a prison, here’s murderers, rapists. They will kill the birds, and they won't look after the birds. That sort of thing.

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Keith with bird

Sara: But now, some of the most brutal inmates in Pollsmoor are lining up to take part.

Keith Randall is a rapist and self confessed killer.

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Keith: I got charged with rape from this girl. I would say I had a part in it and also I would say it was to get back at me for what I did to them. I killed two members of that family.

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Keith being locked up

Sara: Every afternoon, Keith and the other prisoners are locked up until the next morning.

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For Keith, the birds have become trusted cell mates.

Keith: I think they understand me sometimes. Seeing as I have no-one else that I can talk to inside. I often tell them the problems I have. I tell them about the life I had outside. I tell them how they’ve actually changed my life inside

5:05

Keith

and it appears to me that they understand, because they just sit and watch me intently and whenever I stop talking, they start chirping like they are answering me back, in their kind of way, you know. So they are quite good companions on the inside here.

5:19

Prison quod

Sara: It took three years for Keith Randall to earn a place in the project. He says other inmates try to criticise his efforts.

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Keith: They just tell me it’s a waste of time and I’m just doing it for this or I'm doing it for that. I just go back and I tell them, I’m not doing it for nobody else but for myself, you know. I get a kick out of it. I feel good at the end of the day. They’re just jealous.

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Prison choir

Singing

6:00

Sara: There are few distractions from the monotony of prison life.

Singing

Sara: Special opportunities are cherished by the prisoner. At Pollsmoor, one young prison officer has established a choir.

Singing.

Sara: There's a hunger here to become involved, to take up any chance on offer.

6:29

Singing

Prisoners with birds

Sara: The bird project is a rare experiment. There are 170,000 inmates in the South African prison system. In a nation with one of the worst crime rates in the world, the desire for punishment can often override any chance of rehabilitation. But, the tiny birds of Pollsmoor prison are offering some hope for the prisoners who want to change.

6:40

Gresse

Gresse: It symbolises freedom for me, a bird. It’s flying in the sky, it symbolises freedom for me, and they are in cages the prisoners, virtually in cages in prison, but they must one day also get out, so they must get hand reared here, they must get tamed here to get help, in the society to be part of the community again.

7:03

Credits

Jailbirds

Reporter Sally Sara

Camera: Dave Martin

Editor: Kate Wakeman

research: Candace Rivett-Camac

Producer: Ian Altschwager