Prison for Profit : IDFA World Premiere

Sabra Bano with Ruth Hopkins at the Prison for Profit premiere

The world premiere of the documentary 'Prison for Profit' took place on November 24th in Amsterdam at Tuschinski, the most prestigious cinema theatre in the Netherlands during the IDFA week.

Based on the brave work of investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins, the Dutch duo filmmaker sisters Ilse and Femke van Velzen brilliantly depicted a story of the harsh reality in a privatized prison in South Africa, highlighting the grave scale of human rights violations of prisoners.

The documentary provides testimonies demonstrating as to how the profit maximization schemes of mega security giants like G4S works.
The film has powerfully stated that even the most democratically elected governments in Europe and other developed countries outsource their prisoner detention task to dominant International Security Firms like G4S.

The operational focus of these firms is based on low-cost input and high profit output. They don´t consider the humanity of prisoners and the rehabilitation of the people remains cosmetic, ineffective and damaging.
Despite leaked surveillance videos and evidence from guards and former prisoners revealing stories of excessive violence, neglect and unimaginable forms of torture, G4S keeps bidding for prison contracts world-wide.