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 department’s appropriation for the 2025/26 financial year is R29,221,952,000, increasing to R30,567,412,000 in 2026/27 and reaching R31,950,271,000 in the 2027/28 financial year.

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.

To achieve these objectives, over the period ahead, the department will focus on implementing its self-sufficiency and strategic framework, providing adequate security at correctional facilities, and facilitating restorative justice. In response to budget constraints, over the period ahead, the department plans to become more self-sufficient. This will entail running production workshops and agricultural farms aimed at upskilling and rehabilitating offenders by training them to produce items, such as furniture, uniforms, shoes, baked goods and agricultural products, that can be sold or used within the department..

The department has 21 big farms and 115 small gardens, 11 bakeries, 19 textile workshops, 10 steel workshops, 10 wood workshops, and one shoe factory, where products are produced for own use. Apart from enhancing offenders’ employability beyond incarceration, the department has an opportunity to contribute to poverty alleviation and job creation within communities and forge good working relationships between centres and communities. Departmental farms produce various products, including vegetable, fruits, red meat, pork, milk, butter, chicken, eggs and animal fodder.

In this regard, the department runs the following operations:

  • 16 orchards nationally, making it possible to provide fruits needed for inmates;
  • 20 farms that have potential to produce fodder for animal feed;
  • 17 dairies nationally;
  • 15 piggery projects nationally that produce pork for inmates; and
  • Seven layers nationally.

The department plans to supplement these potential income streams through offender labour.

Providing adequate security and security equipment at correctional facilities

Over the next three years, the department aims to prevent escapes and reduce the percentage of injuries in correctional facilities. To achieve this, it will enhance its security operations by providing personnel with appropriate equipment, including body armour, ammunition, leg irons, handcuffs, metal detectors, tonfas, gas or fire filters, pepper spray, neutralisers and mobile parcel scanners.

Improving facilities

To continue implementing strategies to reduce expected overcrowding in correctional facilities, over the next three years, the department will provide for the construction and refurbishment of facilities. This will ensure that additional bed spaces are made available.

Effective rehabilitation

The department aims to continue ensuring that all sentenced offenders are provided with effective rehabilitation programmes to enable their successful reintegration into society. In its efforts to achieve this, the department will implement programmes that focus on addressing the underlying causes of offending behaviour, providing educational and vocational training to offenders to improve their life skills and employability upon release, and continuing to implement the self-sufficiency and sustainability framework.

The framework is intended to guide the department towards finding innovative ways to generate its own revenue and contribute to economic development while upskilling and rehabilitating offenders. Implementing the framework primarily entails running production workshops and agricultural farms where offenders are trained to produce items – such as furniture, uniforms, shoes, baked goods and agricultural products – that can be sold or used within the department.

The department plans to supplement these potential income streams by offender labour. The percentage of sentenced offenders on correctional sentence plans is expected to increase to 98% over the period ahead, and 100% of offenders are expected to participate in occupational skills programmes. All funding related to the rehabilitation of offenders is provided through the Rehabilitation programme.

Reintegrating offenders into society

Community Corrections plays a pivotal role within the South African criminal justice system. This approach not only serves as a cost-effective alternative to incarceration but also marks a significant shift from traditional punitive measures towards a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders into society.

Community Corrections encompasses a range of noncustodial measures and supervision methods for individuals under the jurisdiction of DCS. This includes supervision, community-based sanctions and services tailored for offenders, as mandated by various authorities such as the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (CSPB), High Court and the Minister. The department’s commitment to this system is reflected in the management of 234 Community Corrections offices, 69 satellite offices and 764 service points nationwide, which provide essential services to parolees, probationers and other individuals within the community corrections framework. These facilities not only serve offenders but also engage families, service providers and oversight bodies, fostering a collaborative environment for rehabilitation and reintegration.

Additionally, the department is committed to community development through our plough-back initiatives, which aim to involve 21 784 parolees and probationers in projects that benefit the affected communities. Recognising the often-overlooked needs of crime victims, the department is also dedicated to providing socio-economic support to 594 victims in the 2026/2027 financial year, addressing their unmet needs and fostering healing.

The department’s efforts in Community Corrections reflect a holistic approach to criminal justice, prioritising rehabilitation, reintegration, community engagement and the restoration of relationships. The department believes that through collaboration with various stakeholders, it can ensure that offenders are reintegrated as law-abiding citizens, ultimately contributing to safer communities for all South Africans.

In its efforts to enable the effective reintegration of offenders into society, the department provides aftercare support through the facilitation of programmes and skills that seek to assist parolees and former offenders to be self-sufficient. The department will continue to implement the social reintegration framework that seeks to reposition Community Corrections. This will include provision of resources, professionalising Community Corrections, increasing stakeholder management and offering rehabilitation programmes.

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 2024/25

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