Since 1964, the original prison was added to and today Pollsmoor comprises five prisons.

The Admission Centre serves a number of the courts in the Cape Peninsula -- Cape Town, Mitchell's Plain, Somerset West and Wynberg.

Medium A Prison houses both awaiting trial and sentenced juveniles between the ages of 14 and 21.

Medium B Prison houses sentenced adult males.

Medium C Prison houses sentenced adult males on day parole or soon to be released males.

The Female Prison juvenile and adult women, both awaiting trial and sentenced. There are also a number of infants under the age of 2 living in the Female Prison.

Currently, Pollsmoor Prison has a staff of 1 278 and an inmate population of 7 400 (a figure which fluctuates daily)

The Pollsmoor Admission Centre (formerly the Maximum Prison) is the largest of the five prisons making up the Pollsmoor Management Area. The vast majority of its approximately 3 200 inmates (almost half the total inmate population of Pollsmoor) are unsentenced awaiting-trial prisoners, or sentenced prisoners facing further charges. As an awaiting-trial prison (or remand centre) its population is constantly changing. On a daily basis, about 300 prisoners are booked out to appear in various courts around Cape Town. Some return as sentenced prisoners, others do not return at all, but large numbers come back to their cells to await a future court date, sometimes as distant as six months later.

The Pollsmoor Admission Centre receives prisoners sent to it by the courts. It is massively overcrowded, holding more than twice as many prisoners than it was designed for. By far the majority of prisoners live in communal bungalow cells, in which up to 40 prisoners sleep on double and triple bunks. Even the tiny single cells (of 2.5 by 2 metres) are occupied by one or three prisoners.

Gangsterism is a potent feature of Pollsmoor Prison life, and gangs are segregated into three separate sections on a single floor, accommodating a total of between 500 and 750. This segregation is in part an attempt to limit the gangs' ongoing recruitment of new members from amongst the recent arrivals. Due to the fact that warders are present in the sections for less than two-thirds of the day, the gangs are enormously powerful in the communal cells. Gang rule involves much violence, including sexual violence.

The overwhelming majority of prisoners are from depressed communities on the Cape Flats, where there is large-scale unemployment, a lack of educational and other facilities, homelessness and gangsterism. As a predominantly awaiting-trial institution, there are few resources at Pollsmoor for prisoner programmes, other than visits by independent religious caregivers and non-governmental organisations. Inmates spend nearly all day in their overcrowded cells, and spend only one hour a day having outdoor exercise in enclosed courtyards.