Correctional Services

Introduction
Security
Rehabilitation
Reintegration
Role players

 

Introduction

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is mandated to place offenders in a secure, safe and humane environment, and ensure that rehabilitation and successful reintegration programmes are implemented. This mandate is derived from the Correctional Services Act, 1998 (Act 111 of 1998), the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977  (Act 51 of 1977), the 2005 White Paper on Corrections in South Africa, and the 2014 White Paper on Remand Detention Management in South Africa. This legislation allows the DCS to contribute to the preservation and promotion of a just, peaceful and safe society by ensuring that the corrections environment is secure, safe and humane, and that offenders are optimally rehabilitated to reduce their likelihood of reoffending.

The NDP articulates a vision for a safer South Africa by 2030. The department’s overarching objectives are to detain inmates in safe, secure and humane conditions in correctional centres and remand detention facilities; provide sentenced offenders with needs-based rehabilitation programmes and interventions; and reintegrate offenders into communities as law‐abiding citizens by effectively managing noncustodial sentences and parole.

Over the medium term, the DCS will focus on providing effective rehabilitation for sentenced offenders through rehabilitation programmes and interventions; and building safety by reintegrating offenders into the community as law-abiding citizens. The core of these activities are carried out in the Security Operations, Facilities, Remand Detention and Offender Management subprogrammes in the Incarceration programme.

Allocations to the programme account for 60.7 per cent (R53.2 billion) of the department’s total budget over the period ahead, mainly for spending on compensation of employees. Cabinet has approved reductions to the department’s budget amounting to R2.5 billion over the MTEF period.

However, over the same period, it is set to receive additional allocations amounting to R4.3 billion to compensate for cost-of-living adjustments arising from the 2023/24 public sector wage agreement. As a result, the net decrease in the department’s budget amounts to R1.8 billion. To offset these reductions, the department plans to reduce spending amounting to R94 million over the medium term on core activities in the Security Operations subprogramme in the Incarceration programme. This is expected to negatively impact on performance related to providing safe custody for inmates and sentenced offenders, in particular, at the courts, court cells and hospitals.

In addition, the Rehabilitation programme’s budget is set to be reduced by R345 million over the period ahead. This is expected to hinder the department’s performance in terms of production workshops and facilitating offenders’ agricultural production on farms run by the department.

Providing effective rehabilitation for sentenced offenders

Over the next three years, the department will continue to ensure that all sentenced offenders are provided with effective rehabilitation programmes to enable their successful reintegration into society once they are released.

This will be done by improving their life skills through correctional programmes that target offending behaviour and investing in their personal development by providing literacy, education and skills competency programmes during their incarceration. These activities will be carried out in the Rehabilitation programme, which has a total budget of R6.7 billion over the medium term.

Of the programme’s total budget, 76% (R5.1 billion) is expected to be spent on compensation of employees. The remainder will be used for supplies at various sites where the department provides work opportunities to offenders such as on farms, in bakeries and at a shoe factory, as well as for rehabilitation workshops.

Reintegrating offenders into society

For the successful reintegration of offenders into society, all parole considerations should include victim participation to provide a platform for dialogue between offenders and victims, thereby contributing to healing and restoration. As such, over the MTEF period, the department plans to increase the number of victims participating in dialogues and other restorative justice programmes from 4 700 in 2023/24 to 6 500 in 2026/27.

In its efforts to enable the effective reintegration of offenders into society, the department also provides aftercare support through the facilitation of programmes that seek to help parolees and former offenders to be self-sufficient. To carry out these activities, R3.7 billion is allocated in the Social Reintegration programme over the MTEF period, of which 86.8 per cent (R3.3 billion) is for compensation of employees.

Role players

National Council for Correctional Services (NCCS)

The NCCS is a statutory body that guides the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services in developing policy relating to the correctional system and the sentence-management process.

Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services (JICS)

The JICS was established in 1998 with the statutory objective to facilitate the inspection of correctional centres so that the inspecting judge may report on the treatment of inmates and on conditions in correctional centres. The JICS is an independent office.

Medical Parole Advisory Board

The Correctional Matters Amendment Act, 2011 (Act 5 of 2011), provides for a new medical parole policy and correctional supervision. The Medical Parole Advisory Board was appointed in February 2012 to look into all seriously and terminally ill inmates who have submitted reports requesting to be released on medical grounds.

Correctional supervision and parole board

Correctional supervision and parole boards are responsible for dealing with parole matters and matters of correctional supervision. The boards have decision-making competency except for:

In such cases, recommendations are submitted to courts that, in turn, make decisions in respect of conditional placement.

There are 53 correctional supervision and parole boards in South Africa. These boards are chaired by community members who are regarded as suitable and capable of carrying out the responsibilities by virtue of occupation, standing or cultural reverence. The DCS provides the members with intensive training in respect of the processes, legislative implications and relative policies.

In addition, two members of the community are appointed as members of the board. Trained staff members of the DCS fill the positions of vice-chairperson and secretary. A board can also co-opt a representative of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and a representative of the DoJ&CD. However, if the representatives of the SAPS and of DoJ&CD are not co-opted to participate in a board hearing, the chairperson of the board may request the departments to provide written inputs in respect of specific serious crimes.

Source: South Africa Yearbook 2023/24

Share this page