Correctional Services launches international training academy in Paarl

The Correctional Services Department has launched an international training academy to improve prison management.

The Nelson Mandela Rules Training Academy was unveiled at the Drakenstein Correctional Centre in Paarl on Wednesday. The academy is a United Nations-adopted blueprint for prison management in the 21st century.

The United Nations first adopted the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners in 1955. These are a set of universally acknowledged guidelines for the management of prison facilities and the handling of offenders.

As of 2015, the rules were renamed the Nelson Mandela Rules to honour the legacy of South Africa’s first democratic president.

On Wednesday, the South African government unveils a facility to train local prison officers and guards from the SADC region at the Paarl prison, where Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom began.

Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald said: “It’s 122 rules that say how inmates must be treated, with dignity. The facility is open to the SADC region, particularly, but also all over the world if they want to come, they are welcome. We will make sure they get that training.”

The training curriculum includes addressing overcrowding, conflict resolution, and prisoner rehabilitation models.

-Written by Natalie Malgas