The Department of Correctional Services is a department of the

South African government The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary republic with three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by the Parliament of South Africa. Executive auth ...

. It is responsible for running South Africa's

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

system. The department has about 34,000 staff and is responsible for the administration of 240 prisons, which accommodates about 189,748 inmates. The prisons include minimum, medium and maximum security facilities. The agency is headquartered in the West Block of the Poyntons Building in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

. The political head of the department is the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, who is supported by a Deputy Minister of Correctional Services. the minister is Ronald Lamola and the deputy minister is Patekile Holomisa. In the 2020 budget, R26,800.0 million was appropriated for the department. In the 2018/19 financial year the department had 38,459 employees.

Correctional centres

The 178 prisons run by the department include: * 9 women-only prisons * 13 prisons for young offenders * 40 prisons for male offenders * 72 prisons for both male and female offenders * 5 prisons that are temporarily closed down or undergoing renovations

Notable prisons

Pollsmoor Prison Pollsmoor Prison, officially known as Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, is located in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai in South Africa. Pollsmoor is a maximum security penal facility that continues to hold some of South Africa's most dangerous c ...

in the

Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

is the largest maximum security prison and houses inmates serving life or long term sentences. *

C Max Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwan ...

is also a maximum security prison which houses inmates serving long sentences and those that are considered flight risks. * The former Pretoria Central Prison now known as Kgosi Mampuru II (who was hanged at the prison on 22 November 1883 for public violence and revolt, as well as the murder of rival leader Sekhukhune), was the official site for capital punishment in South Africa before the end of apartheid, frequently meted out against opponents of the apartheid regime. Capital punishment was abolished in 1995 (see Capital punishment in South Africa) * Drakenstein Correctional Centre, the prison from which

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

was released after being imprisoned for opposing

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

Branches

* Finance * Development and Care * Corrections * Central Services * Corporate Services * Operations & Management Support * Departmental Investigation Unit (DIU) * Community Corrections

References

External links

Correctional Services

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

Prison and correctional agencies South Africa, Correctional Services Penal system in South Africa {{SouthAfrica-gov-stub