Pretoria - The Department of Correctional Services has warned journalists covering the Oscar Pistorius release on parole to back off, saying the “privacy of offenders may not be invaded”.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the department also said the release of Paralympian Pistorius under correctional supervision on Monday night, instead of the scheduled Tuesday, was not “preferential treatment”, but was rather an “operational decision” taken by management at Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria.
Spokesperson for the Correctional Services Department, Manelisi Wolela said he had been inundated with requests for more detailed information about what Pistorius’s correctional supervision would entail.
“DCS is currently responsible for approximately 230 000 offenders and awaiting-trial persons, with about 51 963 parolees and 17 061 probationers under the system of community corrections,” he said.
“As per the Correctional Services Act, Act 111 of 1998, all persons subject to community corrections must be supervised in the community by correctional officials. Such supervision must not invade the privacy of the person concerned more than is necessary to ensure compliance with the conditions of the community corrections imposed.
“To this end, DCS does not publicly disclose specific details about individual offenders. As DCS has provided sufficient information on Pistorius, henceforth, no additional information on the said offender will be publicly disclosed.”
He said sentences served under correctional supervision simply meant that “part of the sentence may be served outside a correctional centre, under supervision by officials from DCS, and subject to certain conditions”.
Wolela listed the following conditions a prisoner serving the rest of his/her sentence outside a prison would have to adhere to.
The offender:
* is placed under house detention;
* does community service in order to facilitate restoration of the relationship between the sentenced offenders and the community;
* seeks employment;
* where possible takes up and remains in employment;
* takes part in treatment, development and support programmes;
* lives at a fixed address;
* refrains from using alcohol or illegal drugs;
* refrains from committing a criminal offence;
* refrains from visiting a particular place;
* refrains from making contact with a particular person or persons;
* refrains from threatening a particular person or persons by word or action;
* is subject to monitoring; and
* is subject to such other conditions as may be appropriate in the circumstances.
Failure to comply with these conditions could result in the offender being rearrested, he added.
Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide for killing his model and law graduate girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.
He was sentenced to five years behind bars in October last year, but was only required to serve a sixth of his sentence as prescribed by South African law.
He will now serve out the rest of his sentence under correctional supervision.
ANA
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