Department overview | |
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Formed | 1990 [1] |
Jurisdiction | Government of South Africa |
Employees | 38,459 (2018/19) |
Annual budget | R26,800.0 million (2020/21) |
Ministers responsible |
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Department executive |
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Website | www |
The Department of Correctional Services is a department of the South African government. It is responsible for running South Africa's prison 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. [2]
The political head of the department is the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, who is supported by a Deputy Minister of Correctional Services. [3] As of June 2024 the minister is Pieter Groenewald [4] and the deputy minister is Lindiwe Ntshalintshali. 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. [5]
The 178 prisons run by the department include:
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Prisons in South Africa are run by the Department of Correctional Services. The department is divided into six administrative regions, each with its own regional commissioner, and subdivided into multiple areas, each headed by an area commissioner. According to the ministry, there are approximately 34,000 employees of the department running 240 prisons. In those prisons are nearly 156,000 inmates as of August 2013. The prisons include minimum, medium, maximum and super-maximum security facilities. They may be entirely dedicated to a specific group of prisoners, such as women or children, or be divided into separate sections for each group. Since 2024, the Minister of Correctional Services has been Pieter Groenewald.
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