Cancelling public-private partnership (PPP) procurement does not exclude building new prisons, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Wednesday.

Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on her budget vote, she said that after conducting the review on the provision of new facilities through the PPP model, a decision was taken to cancel the procurement process in October 2011.

"The cancellation of the current procurement process does not exclude the future building of additional correctional facilities," she said.

The building and maintenance of correctional facilities (capital costs) might still be best provided by third parties, but such a decision could be taken only once the department had pronounced on its long-term demand for facilities in relation to both the optimal size for inmate type and location.

"It is our view that the issue of size for our centres should be based on requirements as opposed to the initial proposal that the new facilities should have 3 000 bed capacity across the board."

The department had recently concluded a process of consultative engagements with the construction industry to discuss further plans with regard to infrastructure roll-out.

In line with the space requirements submitted from the regions, certain facilities had been approved for construction this year.

These were two 500-bed capacity centres each for Limpopo and Eastern Cape, one 500-bed capacity centre for the Western Cape, and a 1 000 bed capacity centre in KwaZulu-Natal.

Construction on the six centres would start by the end of this year, she said.

An additional 12 centres of between 500 and 1 500-bed capacity would be constructed in the next few years.

The department was also evaluating the current technology security systems which included access control systems, surveillance systems, alarm systems, fencing systems and the like to ensure alignment with the security problems and technology strategy of the department.

This process would direct the management, maintenance, and upgrading of existing systems as well as implementation of new systems.

A contract had been awarded for installing security fences with CCTV cameras and detection systems at 27 correctional facilities.

"We are also in the process for the procurement of a service provider for the upgrading, maintenance and management of the existing access control system for DCS."

The access control and fencing virtual private network that was run and controlled by external service providers had been taken over by the department.

Body scanners would be installed in 20 priority facilities whereafter further roll-out would be considered.

A skills development framework for security personnel inclusive of emergency support teams (EST) had been approved and a training curriculum for EST's was under development.

"We are encouraged by the report that we are succeeding in the down management of escapes from a total of 106 in 2010/11 to 41 in 2011/12. We have also identified the number of facilities with a high risk of gang activities," Mapisa-Nqakula said.