Ruth Hopkins is an award-winning investigative journalist. She worked as a journalist with the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg from 2012 to 2018, producing content about wrongful convictions, lengthy remand detention, police brutality and various other criminal justice issues. Ruth wrote a book on trafficking women into Europe, which was published in 2005 (Ik laat je nooit meer gaan, I will never let you go again). She has written an as of yet unpublished novel about ‘Magdalene women’ who were incarcerated in convents in Ireland because they were perceived as a ‘moral danger to society’. Ruth broke an international story in 2013 on private security company G4S’ South African prison. Her non-fiction investigative book on the prison, Misery Merchants (Life and Death in a Private South African Prison), was published in March 2020 by Jacana Media. Ruth also worked on an international documentary film based on the same investigation. It premiered in November 2019 to acclaim at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxZEEsmTcY Ruth is also a founding member and editor of the Private Security Network, a transnational network of investigative journalists from around the globe who are investigating private security company G4S’ global security operation. See: www.privatesecurity.network
