Correctional Services Act, 1998 (Act No. 111 of 1998)

Chapter I :  Definitions

1. Definitions

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Definitions:

 

"amenities"

means-

recreational and other activities, diversions or privileges which are granted to inmates in addition to what they are entitled to as of right and in terms of this Act and includes-

a)exercise;
b)contact with the community;
c)reading material;
d)recreation; and
e)incentive schemes;

 

"Area Manager"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008]

 

"Assistants"

means persons appointed under section 87 to assist the Inspecting Judge;

 

"authorised official"

means a correctional official authorised by a Head of the Correctional Centre to conduct disciplinary proceedings as contemplated in section 24;

 

"care"

means the provision of services and programmes aimed at enhancing and maintaining the social, mental, spiritual, health and physical well being of inmates;

 

"Case Management Committee"

means a committee established under section 42;

 

"child"

means a person under the age of 18 years;

 

"Commissioner"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008].

 

"community corrections"

means all non-custodial measures and forms of supervision applicable to persons who are subject to such measures and supervision in the community and who are under the control of the Department;

 

"community corrections office"

means a place designated by the National Commissioner for the administration and management of community corrections;

 

"community service"

means compulsory work for a community organisation or other compulsory work of value to the community, performed without payment;

 

"Constitution"

means the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No. 108 of 1996);

 

"contract"

in relation to a public-private partnership correctional centre, means a contract for the design, construction, financing or operation of that correctional centre envisaged in section 103;

 

"Contractor"

in relation to a public-private partnership correctional centre, means any party who has contracted with the State for the design, construction, financing or operating of a correctional centre;

 

"Controller"

means a correctional official on or above the post level of senior correctional official in the employ of the Department and employed under section 105;

 

"correction"

means provision of services and programmes aimed at correcting the offending behaviour of sentenced offenders in order to rehabilitate them;

 

"correctional centre"

means any place established under this Act as a place for the reception, detention, confinement, training or treatment of persons liable to detention in custody or to placement under protective custody, and all land, outbuildings and premises adjacent to any such place and used in correction therewith and all land, branches, outstations, camps, buildings, premises or places to which any such persons have been sent for the purpose of incarceration, detention, protection, labour, treatment or otherwise, and all quarters of correctional officials used in connection with any such correctional centre, and for the purpose of sections 115 and 117 includes every place used as a police cell or lock-up;

 

"correctional medical practitioner"

means a medical practitioner registered in terms of the Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974), and appointed in terms of section 3(4);

 

"correctional official"

means an employee of the Department appointed under section 3(4);

 

"correctional supervision"

means a form of community corrections contemplated in Chapter VI;

 

"Correctional Supervision and Parole Board"

means a board appointed by the Minister under section 74;

 

"Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board"

means a board selected under section 76;

 

"Criminal Procedure Act"

means the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977);

 

"custody official"

means an employee of a Contractor who is certified to carry out custodial duties at a public-private partnership correctional centre, and may include an employee of a subcontractor who is so certified;

 

"day parole"

means a form of community corrections contemplated in section 54;

 

"Department"

means the Department of Correctional Services;

 

"development"

means the provision of services and programmes aimed at developing and enhancing competencies and skills that will enable the sentenced offender to re-integrate into the community;

 

"Director"

means an employee of the Contractor appointed in terms of section 108;

 

"disability"

means a physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which prevents a person having such an impairment from operating in an environment developed for persons without such an impairment.

 

"disciplinary official"

means a correctional official of the rank of assistant director or above, or where such official is not available a correctional official specially trained in the conduct of disciplinary hearings of inmates, appointed by the National Commissioner in terms of section 24;

 

"habitual criminal"

means a person referred to in section 286 of the Criminal Procedure Act;

 

"Head of Community Corrections"

means a correctional official designated by the National Commissioner to manage and control community corrections at a community corrections office;

 

"Head of the Correctional Centre"

means a correctional official designated by the National Commissioner to manage and control a particular correctional centre;

 

"house detention"

means a requirement relating to community corrections contemplated in section 59;

 

"Independent Correctional Centre Visitor"

means a person appointed under section 92;

 

"inmate"

means any person, whether convicted or not, who is detained in custody in any correctional centre or remand detention facility or who is being transferred in custody or is en route from one correctional centre or remand detention facility to another correctional centre or remand detention facility;

 

"Inspecting Judge"

means a person appointed under section 86;

 

"joint venture prison"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008]

 

"Judicial Inspectorate"

means the inspectorate established under section 85;

 

"Labour Relations Act"

means the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995);

 

"legal practitioner"

means any person admitted to practice as an advocate or an attorney in the Republic;

 

"management area"

means an area determined by a Regional Commissioner, which consists of one or more prisons or offices and which is under the control of a correctional official designated as a National Commissioner;

 

"mechanical restraints"

means a device which limits or prevents freedom of physical movement;

 

"medical officer"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008]

 

"medical practitioner"

means a medical practitioner as defined in section 1 of the Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974);

 

"medical treatment"

means treatment, regimen or intervention prescribed by a medical practitioner, dentist or psychologist as defined in section 1 of the Medical, Dental and Supplementary Health Service Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974);

 

"Minister"

means the Minister of Correctional Services;

 

"mother and child unit"

means a unit within a correctional centre where provision is made for separate sleeping accommodation for mother and child, as well as a crèche facility, and where the focus is on the normalisation of the environment in order to promote the child’s physical and emotional development and care;

 

"National Commissioner"

Means the National Commissioner of Correctional Services contemplated in section 3(3);

 

"National Council"

means the National Council for Correctional Services, established under section 83;

 

"needs-based programmes"

means programmes that are developed or rendered according to the identified specific needs of offenders;

 

"non-parole period"

means the period as defined in section 276B of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977);

 

"other body"

means either –

a)the National Director of Public Prosecutions or his or her delegate acting in terms of section 41 of 53(3) of the Child Justice Act, 2008, (Act No. 75 of 2008); or
b)the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board acting under section 77(1) of the Act, as the case may be.

 

"parole"

means a form of community corrections contemplated in Chapter VI;

 

"periodical incarceration"

means a sentence imposed in terms of section 285 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977);

 

"prison"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008]

 

"prisoner"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008]

 

"professionals"

means persons registered under the Nursing Act, 1978 (Act No. 50 of 1978), Chiropractors, Homeopaths and Allied Health Service Professions Act, 1982 (Act No. 63 of 1982), Pharmacy Act, 1974 (Act No. 53 of 1974), Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974), and the Social Work Act, 1978 (Act No. 110 of 1978);

 

"Provincial Commissioner"

[deleted by Correctional Services Amendment Act, 2008 No. 25 of 2008]

 

"psychologist"

means a psychologist as defined in section 1 of the Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974);

 

"publication"

means-

a)any newspaper, book, periodical, pamphlet, poster or other printed matter;
b)any writing or typescript which has been duplicated in any manner;
c)any drawing, picture, illustration or painting;
d)any print, photograph, engraving or lithograph;
e)any record, magnetic tape, soundtrack or any other object in or on which sound has been recorded for reproduction;
f)computer software;
g)the cover or packaging of a film; and
h)any figure, carving, statue or model;

 

"public-private partnership correctional centre"

means a correctional centre or part of a correctional centre referred to in section 103.

 

"Public Service Act"

means the Public Service Act, 1994 (Proclamation No. 103 of 1994);

 

"register"

means any physical, written or typed record or any data contained in the random access memory of a computer or stored by any computer on any storage medium;

 

"registered nurse"

means a person registered as a nurse under section 16 of the Nursing Act, 1978 (Act No. 50 of 1978), and excludes any reference to the "nursing auxiliary" and "enrolled nurse", enrolled under the provisions of the said section;

 

"remand detainee"
a)means a person detained in a remand detention facility awaiting the finalisation of his or her trial, whether by acquittal or sentence, if such person has not commenced serving a sentence or is not already serving a prior sentence; and
b)includes a person contemplated in section 9 of the Extradition Act, 1962, (Act No. 67 of 1962), detained for the purposes of extradition;

 

"remand detention facility"

means a place established under this Act as a place for the reception, detention or confinement of a person liable to detention in custody, and all land, branches, outstations, camps, buildings, premises or places to which any such persons have been sent for the purpose of detention, protection, treatment or otherwise, and all quarters used by correctional officials in connection with any such remand detention facility, and for the purpose of sections 115 and 117 includes every place used as a police cell or lock-up;

 

"remand detention official"

means an employee of the Department appointed under section 3(4) at a remand detention facility or transferred to a remand detention facility;

 

"sentenced offender"

means a convicted person sentenced to incarceration or correctional supervision;

 

"solitary confinement"

means being held in a single cell with loss of all amenities;

 

"specialist medical practitioner"

means a person registered in respect of any profession under the Health Professions Act, 1974, (Act No. 56 of 1974), to whom the definition "speciality" applies under that Act.

 

"Supervision Committee"

means a committee established under section 58;

 

"Temporary Manager"

means a correctional official on or above the post level of senior correctional official in the employ of the Department appointed for the purposes referred to in section 112;

 

"this Act"

includes the regulations and orders promulgated under this Act;

 

"unsentenced offender"

means any person who is lawfully detained in a correctional centre and who has been convicted of an offence, but who has not been sentenced to incarceration or correctional supervision;

 

"Visitors’ Committee"

means a committee appointed under section 94.