TYPES OF CORRECTIONAL CENTRES

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 COSTS OF IMPRISONMENT
• Imprisonment is an expensive option.
• It costs to keep an inmate in maximum custody for a year.
• R167.00 a day (monitoring device) = R60 955 a year (SA)
• R350.00 a day (incarceration) = R127 750 (SA)

OFFENDER FEES
• Correctional costs have skyrocketed over the years.

• Offenders should contribute to their own supervision costs has gained

widespread political support in recent years.

• Close up corrections – charging inmate fees for healthcare.

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 S.A Correctional centres

• Remember in South Africa we no longer have jails or prisons; they are now
called correctional centres
• South Africa has a correctional centres population of some 163 000 – of
which roughly 48 000 are awaiting trial and the rest (approximately 115
000) are sentenced inmates.
• The overwhelming majority of intmates are sentenced adult males (112
000).
• There are almost 3 000 adult sentenced females.
• Children comprise fewer than 100 individuals

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 SECURITY CLASSIFICATIONS
Maximum / close security
• often located in remote rural areas or heavily fence with control measures
in place.
• There is internal & eternal security.
• Closed security has-been added.
• Some facilities have been criticised for “imposing extreme social isolation.
• Such facilities give order & control in the prison system.

MEDIUM SECURITY-
• These types of institutions house a wide variety of offenders – anyone
who is not dangerous enough to require maximum or close security.

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 Cont……
MINIMUM SECURITY-
• These are not even referred to as Correctional Centres but rather half way
houses
• In urban areas minimum security facilities are located directly in the
community, they known as “community residential centres”.
• Inmates in such institutions may hold jobs / attend classes in the
community by day.
• These are non-violent offenders serving short sentences.

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 Cont…..

WOMEN’S FACILTIES-

• There is maximum – medium & minimum security institutions for men.

• There is less custodial classification among women’s prison.
• • A number of states do not have enough female offenders to justify the
need for more women’s prison.
• Correctional institutions: facilities where men & women are housed within
one compound, with access to the same programs (although not shared
living quarters.)
• For women such facilities provide a great range of recreational,
educational, training & work programs that would traditionally be
available in female prisons.

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 CLASSIFICATION PROCEDURES

• All inmates undergo some form of custodial classification

• Classification process is designed to determine level of externally imposed
control
• Classification separates inmates into groups according to common
characteristics
• Prison inmates primarily classified according to degree of security they
require.
• During initial intake, an evaluation assessment is conducted , where new
inmates are transferred upon arrival
• Others may conduct incept interview with the offender, along with
psychological evaluation, medical examination etc.

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 Reclassification
• Initial classification does not preclude a change in status at a later time
• The process is not foolproof, and it may turn out that someone was either
overclassified or unappreciately classified.
• As inmates prove themselves worthy of great truth over the years, their
security level could be reduce.
• Less security, the less expensive the inmate supervision and
simultaneously, the closer the correctional process is to reintegrating the
offender into society.
• During the period of their incarceration prisoners may be reclassified and
assigned to new housing jobs, or programs any number of times.

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 PRISON CROWDING

• Portray the misery of living conditions to which inmates are subjected in

overflowing prisons
• Due to the increase of crime in South Africa it has resulted in correctional
centres being overcrowded with inmates this includes inmates that already
serving their sentence and inmates awaiting trial
• Overcrowded facilities have adversely affected conditions of confinement,
jeopardised prisoner safety, compromised prison management etc.
• The consequences of over housing too many people into too little space
means that inmates are double-bunked in small cells designed for one

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Cont…

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 Cont…

• According to Department of Correctional Services (2019) the most recent

inmate numbers show that the country’s prisons are 37% overcrowded,
with 162 875 prisoners against an accommodation capacity of 118 572 bed
spaces.
• This survey indicated the number of inmates who slept on beds varied
greatly, with 96% at one centre on beds, while in another, 66% of those
surveyed did not have beds.
• The problem of overcrowding within the South African prison system has
been identified as a key challenge, which negatively affects the ability of
the Department of Correctional Service (DCS) to rehabilitate offenders

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NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF CORRECTIONAL
SERVICES

Pre-trial Detention and Convicted Offenders

• Since incarceration is considered a form of punishment, it would be logical
to expect that jails would house more convicted offenders serving
sentences than accused suspects waiting for trial.
• That is not the case.
• To the contrary, those in pretrial or unconvicted status now represent well
over half (62 percent) of the jail population, clearly surpassing the number
serving sentences in correctional centres.
• Obviously, correctional centres have little control over the sentences of
those convicted.
• But efforts have been made to reduce pretrial populations through such
alternatives as release on recognizance, pretrial intervention, and electronic
monitoring.

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Beyond confining pre-trial detainees and those serving short sentences,
correctional centres are also responsible for:

• booking those arrested;

• holding convicted offenders awaiting sentencing;
• holding sentenced offenders awaiting transfer to other correctional
facilities;
• readmitting probation, parole, and bail/bond violators or absconders;
• holding illegal immigrants pending further processing
• The jail also serves other purposes for which it was not intended. i.e.:
Juveniles, parole and probation violators, the mentally ill

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 RESPONSES TO OVERCROWDING
• Reaction to the crowding crisis have included both the expansion of
existing facilities and the construction of new institution
• Front end / back end approaches: addressing the prison crowding crisis
by either reducing the numbers going into prison or increasing the numbers
coming out.
• Front-end solution is to keep more people from being incarcerated through
use of the community based alternatives (diversion, electronic monitoring,
probation)
• Back end approaches are designed to release more of those already
confined through such options such as time off on good behavior, parole,
temporary release

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