Zambia Correctional Service Act, 2021

This section gives the Act its short title and says it starts on a date appointed by the Minister by statutory instrument.

This section defines many terms used in the Act, including inmate, prison, correctional centre, correctional officers, parole, and related correctional-service roles and documents.

The purposes of imprisonment or similar liberty-depriving measures are to protect against crime, reduce recidivism, and support an inmate’s reintegration into society after discharge.

The Service must follow listed principles in carrying out correctional functions.

The Parole Board can set its own procedure, but must meet at least every three months, keep minutes, and use the specified quorum, voting, and meeting-call rules.

The Service is responsible for managing and controlling prisons and correctional centres, alongside its constitutional functions.

The President appoints the Commissioner-General, Deputy Commissioner-Generals, and Commissioners. The Commissioner-General runs the Service day to day, and a Deputy Commissioner-General acts as Commissioner-General if the Commissioner-General is absent or unable to perform the office.

The Commission must appoint correctional officers as public officers when needed for this Act’s functions.

The Commission must appoint an officer-in-charge for each prison or correctional centre, after consulting the Commissioner-General.

If no officer-in-charge has been appointed, the Commissioner-General may appoint a correctional officer to take charge, and the Minister may declare places to be prisons or correctional centres by Gazette notice.

A prison or correctional centre must provide disability facilities and post natal care for female inmates.

The Commissioner-General may set up a temporary prison or correctional centre in a suitable building or place when existing facilities are overcrowded or inmates need temporary safe custody during an epidemic outbreak.

Male correctional officers may be deployed to female prisons or with female inmates, and female correctional officers may be deployed to male prisons or with male inmates, but inmates must be accompanied by an officer of the same sex.

The Commission must appoint a Director for prison health care services and may appoint other necessary officers; the appointed Director is responsible for day-to-day administration and supervision of a health practitioner.

The Commission must appoint a health practitioner for a prison or correctional centre, and the practitioner must provide visits, reports, and backup health care services in the stated circumstances.

A health practitioner must examine an inmate on admission to prison or a correctional centre and before discharge, and must do other prescribed duties. If an inmate was not examined on admission, the officer-in-charge must keep the inmate apart from other inmates.

A health practitioner must, on each prison or correctional-centre visit, examine and observe the mental condition of certain inmates and report to the officer-in-charge.

A health practitioner must make sure certain inmates are medically examined each day the practitioner visits the prison or correctional centre.

The officer-in-charge may order an inmate to undergo medical examination and treatment whenever the officer considers it necessary.

A health practitioner must keep a register recording the death of an inmate, except where the death was by lawful execution.

If an inmate dies in a prison or correctional centre, the officer-in-charge must immediately notify a magistrate and follow the Inquests Act.

Correctional officers must carry out their assigned functions, obey lawful directions from senior correctional officers, remain available for duty, and not take other employment relationships.

A correctional officer must exercise the same power, authority, protection, and privilege as a police officer when acting in the officer’s functions, subject to this Act.

Correctional officers must search people, vehicles, and items connected to a prison or correctional centre, and can arrest certain persons found with prohibited or government property.

A correctional officer must not punish an inmate unless lawfully ordered by the officer-in-charge.

A correctional officer may use a weapon only in specified escape- or violence-related situations, and must otherwise follow strict conditions, warnings, and supervisory orders.

A correctional officer has power to arrest a person who has escaped from lawful custody and take that person to prison, a correctional centre, or the nearest police station. If the person is a child in conflict with the law, the officer may take the child to a place of safety.

The officer-in-charge must take photographs, measurements, footprints, palm prints and fingerprints of an inmate if authorised by the Commissioner-General, and may use necessary force if the inmate refuses.

A court must enter judgment for a correctional officer if the act complained of was done under a warrant and the stated proof requirements are met.

Admission to a prison or correctional centre must be under the Commissioner-General’s authority and supported by the listed warrant or order.

Expectant mothers and certain children in prison or a correctional centre may receive care and supplies at public expense, and the officer-in-charge must hand a weaned child to a relative, friend, or the Commissioner of Social Welfare depending on support available.

The officer-in-charge must record an inmate’s particulars when the inmate is admitted to a prison or correctional centre.

The officer-in-charge must give an inmate access to key information when the inmate is admitted to a prison or correctional centre, and must provide it orally or in an appropriate way if the inmate is illiterate or has a disability.

An inmate has access to legal aid, and must be allowed confidential, prompt visits and consultation with a legal advisor or legal aid provider.

A correctional officer must search an inmate on admission, do so respectfully and with privacy, confiscate any prohibited article found, and give it to the officer-in-charge. The Commissioner-General may issue disposal orders for confiscated prohibited articles.

An officer-in-charge must inventory inmate property, return it on release or discharge, and follow set steps for unclaimed property and notices.

Inmates must be separated by category and kept in separate accommodation, with special separation rules for male inmates, female inmates, and children in conflict with the law.

Inmates must remain in the lawful custody of the officer-in-charge and follow prison discipline throughout imprisonment. The officer-in-charge must keep and detain people lawfully committed to custody under a warrant or order, until a court discharges them or they are released.

A court may authorise a probation officer to remove a remand inmate from prison or a correctional centre for inquiries, and a correctional officer must hand over custody to the probation officer.

A court may order a prison or correctional officer to produce an inmate for civil proceedings, and the officer must comply.

An inmate on remand or committed for trial who must attend court may be taken into police custody at the prison or correctional centre and kept under police supervision until returned or discharged by the court.

Police officers may interview an inmate in a prison or correctional centre only if the stated approvals, written order, and presence requirements are met; in some cases the officer-in-charge may allow an interview without a correctional officer.

An officer-in-charge may transfer an inmate to police custody for justice or a crime investigation, but only with a written order.

The Commissioner-General may order an inmate to be moved to another prison or correctional centre.

A prison or correctional-centre officer may order mechanical restraint of an inmate when needed for safe custody, but must not use degrading or painful chains, irons, or similar instruments.

If an inmate is considered mentally ill, the prison officer in charge must arrange assessment and treatment under the Mental Health Act, 2019; a convicted inmate adjudged a forensic mental patient is to be detained in a designated health facility.

This section lets prison officials move a sick inmate to a health facility and sets duties for medical staff, prison staff, and security officers while the inmate is being treated.

The quarantine-centre officer must send a signed certificate or notify the prison officer about the inmate, and staff must take reasonable steps to prevent escape without harming the inmate’s health.

An inmate remains in lawful custody in a health facility, designated health facility, or quarantine centre. A correctional officer is not answerable for an escape unless the inmate was in that officer’s personal custody at the time. Other listed health-related persons are also not answerable unless they helped the inmate escape.

Time spent detained in a health facility, designated health facility, or quarantine centre counts as part of the inmate’s prison sentence.

The Service must provide rehabilitation programmes for inmates, and public or private bodies must not bar a person from job consideration because of a past prison sentence, subject to the Constitution.

Criminal inmates must work as directed, while some inmates may choose to work and female inmates need approval to work outside the prison.

Some inmates must keep their cells and belongings clean, and appellant inmates must also do labour when directed with approval. The Commissioner-General may authorise institutions or persons to employ or train inmates and may authorise services in the public interest.

A person commits an offence if they bring, remove, pass, attempt to move, give, take, or communicate prohibited articles or messages with an inmate without authorisation.

A correctional officer may arrest a person without a warrant and hand the person over to a police officer if the person is linked to a section 58 offence, refuses to give a name and address, or gives false identifying details.

This section restricts inmates’ access to electronic and telecommunication devices, allows an officer-in-charge to permit access at a designated place, requires reporting of certain unendorsed inmate correspondence, and prohibits publishing or transmitting such correspondence without the Commissioner-General’s authority.

A person commits an offence if they loiter near a prison or correctional centre and do not leave when asked by a correctional officer or police officer, or if they wilfully interfere with inmates.

A person who commits an offence under section 56 may be removed by a correctional officer or police officer; if the offence is repeated after removal, the person may be arrested without warrant by a correctional officer and handed over to a police officer.

It is an offence to possess certain prison-related property without accounting for it, to buy or receive such property from a correctional officer without lawful authority, or to help a correctional officer sell or dispose of it.

A person other than an inmate must not help an inmate escape, try to escape, or take steps to facilitate an escape.

A person must not harbour or employ an inmate known to be unlawfully at large.

A person commits an offence by using or wearing certain uniforms or decorations without authority, or by falsely claiming to be entitled to use them.

An officer-in-charge must display a notice outside a prison or correctional centre, in a conspicuous place, listing the prohibited acts and possible penalties.

A civil or unconvicted inmate may be allowed to keep and arrange for the purchase or receipt of food, clothing, or other necessaries from private sources at prescribed hours.

An inmate who receives food, clothing, or other necessaries under section 63 must not hire or sell them to another inmate.

If a civil inmate or unconvicted inmate does not provide their own food and clothing, they are to receive the normal food, clothing, and other requirements from the prison or correctional centre.

An inmate commits a minor offence if they do any of the listed acts, including disobedience, disrespect, misconduct, improper language, unauthorised writing, leaving places without permission, damaging property, prohibited articles, false accusations, political activity, or aiding and abetting.

An officer-in-charge may punish an inmate found guilty of a minor offence with one or more listed sanctions.

An inmate commits a major offence if they engage in mutiny, certain assaults, escape-related conduct, conceal escape tools, refuse to help prevent escape or attacks, indecent acts with another inmate, or aiding and abetting a major offence.

An officer-in-charge may keep an inmate charged with an offence apart from other inmates, and must segregate an inmate when needed for prison order and discipline.

A charge against an inmate for a major offence must be heard and determined by a court of competent jurisdiction.

An inmate who commits a major offence is liable to the imprisonment sentence set for that offence in the Penal Code.

An inmate confined in a separate cell as punishment for a minor or major offence must be given a full diet, and must not be made to do manual labour until the punishment ends.

An inmate must not be kept in a separate cell for more than 90 days in total within 12 months.

A lawfully imposed punishment may be served partly in one prison or correctional centre and partly in another.

Some convicted inmates may earn or be granted remission of sentence, but only under the listed conditions and exceptions.

The officer-in-charge must handle the discharge of inmates who are entitled to be released, and may not discharge certain inmates unless the written conditions in the section are met.

The Commissioner-General may order the discharge of a terminally ill inmate from prison or a correctional centre, but only with Ministerial approval and a health practitioner’s recommendation. If the inmate is unconvicted or has a pending appeal, the court must be notified before release and must say whether it consents.

A convicted inmate must be discharged or released by noon on the day they are entitled to be discharged or released.

An inmate discharged or released from prison or a correctional centre is entitled to travelling expenses, which the Commissioner-General may determine.

The National Parole Board continues to exist under this Act, the Minister appoints its part-time members, the Vice-Chairperson is elected by the members, and the First Schedule applies to the Board.

The Parole Board can receive, consider, and decide parole-related matters, including inmate release, parole reports, parole revocation, and coordination of parole release activities.

The Parole Board must be devolved to provinces and districts progressively, as prescribed.

An inmate may apply to the Parole Board for parole through the officer-in-charge, but only if the inmate has served the minimum prescribed sentence; applicants must also show good conduct and industry.

The President may release a life-sentenced inmate on licence, change or cancel licence conditions, and revoke the licence by order. A terminal-sentence inmate may apply to the Parole Board for parole. If a licence is revoked, the inmate must return to prison or a correctional centre immediately.

The Commission must appoint a Director and qualified correctional officers for post-imprisonment and parole-related services, and the Director must carry out specified reintegration and support functions.

An inmate is not eligible for selection to an extension service programme unless they meet the stated conditions.

The Commissioner-General may make an after care order for an inmate, but it must be made on or before discharge and cannot last longer than one year after discharge.

A person subject to an after care order commits an offence if convicted of another offence or if they breach the order’s terms; conviction under this section carries three months’ imprisonment. The Commissioner-General may also make a further after care order when a prior one has ceased to have effect.

An inmate sentenced to death must be kept separately from other inmates and watched constantly by a correctional officer day and night.

Most people may not access an inmate sentenced to death, but certain officials and authorised persons are exempt. The inmate may be visited by a legal representative, relative, or friend, if the required consent is given and any conditions are met.

Executions of death-sentenced inmates must take place at a designated prison or correctional centre, with specified officials present, and under the Minister’s and Commissioner-General’s arrangements.

The Commissioner-General must submit reports to the President about certain inmates when the stated time or age conditions are met.

A judge may visit and inspect a prison or correctional centre at any time, and may ask about complaints or requests made by an inmate during the visit.

A visiting justice may visit a prison or correctional centre and inspect conditions, records, inmates, food, rules compliance, and inmate complaints.

A visiting justice must record observations, suggestions, or recommendations in the prison book after a visit, and must submit a written report of the inspection to the Minister and copied officials.

The Minister may appoint a public officer as an inspector for prison or correctional-centre inspections, at prescribed intervals.

An inspector appointed under section 96 must visit prisons or correctional centres at least every two months and inspect inmate food, prison rules compliance, and inmate complaints or requests.

An inspector must record observations, suggestions, or recommendations in the officer-in-charge’s book after a visit and must send a written, comprehensive report to the Minister and copied officials.

Certain religious visitors may be allowed to visit inmates and conduct religious services during prescribed hours if their visits are approved by the Commissioner-General.

A probation officer or qualifying NGO representative may enter a prison or correctional centre only with written permission from the Commissioner-General and at times arranged by the officer-in-charge.

A correctional officer or any other person commits an offence for mutiny-related conduct or for trying to induce disobedience or disloyalty.

A correctional officer must not leave duty without permission or desert the Service; absence for 21 days without reasonable cause counts as desertion, and offenders may be fined or imprisoned.

A person commits an offence if they help, persuade, harbour, or rescue in relation to a correctional officer’s desertion.

A correctional officer commits an offence if, while on duty, they engage in listed improper dealings with inmates, supplies, information, or related financial interests.

Correctional officers must not take fees or engage in illegal dealings with inmates, discharged persons, visitors, or inmates’ friends, except where authority or directions are given as stated.

The Commission must discipline correctional officers at or below Commissioner rank in a prescribed manner, and it must issue a Disciplinary Code of Conduct for the Service.

A correctional officer must not join a trade union or certain employment-influencing associations, except a correctional officer staff association set up under the Act.

The Commissioner-General or a designated correctional officer must submit a list to the High Court at the start of each criminal session.

The Commissioner-General may offer a reward for information leading to the apprehension of an escaped inmate, and must pay expenses for a person who apprehends, secures, hands over, or causes the inmate to be handed over.

The Commissioner-General may give a monetary or other reward to a correctional officer for injuries on duty, bravery, valuable intelligence, or other meritorious service.

If the President pardons a death-sentenced inmate on condition of imprisonment, the inmate is treated as having been sentenced by the convicting court.

An inmate sentenced by a competent court in another country may be imprisoned in the Republic until the sentence or part of it expires, and a Minister’s certificate is conclusive evidence of lawful imprisonment under this section.

An eligible inmate may be moved to another country by warrant signed by the Minister; a citizen inmate cannot be removed.

The Commissioner-General may give an inmate written permission to be absent from a prison or correctional centre.

The Commissioner-General must keep a personal record for each correctional officer and record the person named to receive any money or personal property if the officer dies without a valid will.

A witness attending an inquiry or hearing under this Act is entitled to the same allowances and expenses as a witness in criminal proceedings, under the Criminal Procedure Code.

This section says a person can still be prosecuted under other written law and can still face a higher penalty under other law, but cannot be punished twice for the same offence.

The Minister may appoint a committee of inquiry, which must have at least two members including one senior officer.

When a person leaves the Service, a correctional officer must hand back the issued arms, ammunition, accoutrements, uniforms, and other equipment to the officer-in-charge at the last station.

A person convicted of an offence under the Act with no separate penalty is liable to a fine, imprisonment, or both.

The Minister may make regulations by statutory instrument to better carry out the Act.

The Prisons Act, 1966 is repealed.

The savings and transitional provisions in the Third Schedule apply for this Act.

The Parole Board may create committees, delegate functions to them, appoint their members, and set committee procedure; each committee must include at least one Parole Board member.

A member serves a three-year term and may be re-appointed once for a final three-year term. If the term ends before a replacement is appointed, the member may stay on for up to three months. The Minister must appoint a replacement when a vacancy arises before the term expires.

Members of the Parole Board or its committee are protected from lawsuits or proceedings for good-faith acts done while exercising or carrying out powers, functions, or duties under the Act.

Members of the Parole Board or its committee are to be paid allowances, and the Emoluments Commission may set those allowances on the Minister’s recommendation.

A person at a Parole Board meeting must disclose any relevant private interest promptly and must not join the discussion or vote unless the Board directs otherwise.

A person must not publish or disclose protected information learned in the course of duties under the Act without written consent from or on behalf of the Parole Board. Publishing a final decision of the Board is not prohibited.

The Service’s funds come from appropriations, grants or donations, and money that vests in or accrues to it. The Service may accept grants or donations, or borrow money, but only with the Minister’s approval. The funds must also be used to pay staff and member expenses and other service costs.

The Service’s financial year is a 12-month period ending on 31 December each year.

The Service must keep proper books and records, have its accounts audited annually, and pay the audit fees.

The Service must send an annual report to the Minister within 90 days after the financial year ends, and the Minister must table it in the National Assembly within 7 days after its next sitting following receipt.

This Schedule defines “former Service” as the Zambia Prisons Service established under the repealed Act.

People who were officers or employees of the former Service before this Act started continue in the Service, and their service counts as continuous service.

The Service must apply to register the transfer, and the registration authority must update the register and may issue a title certificate or amend and endorse the relevant records.

Pending legal proceedings or applications may continue against or by the new Service, and later proceedings about rights, liabilities, or obligations of the former Service may be started by or against the Service.

A person who was already a Parole Board member before this Act starts must continue as a member for up to three months.