151ST INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’PAPERS
PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSOVERVIEW PAPER:INTRODUCING THE KOREAN CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM
Jong-won – Yoon*I. ORGANIZATION
A. Central Headquarters
The Correctional Service of the Ministry of Justice, which is the central organization of correctionaladministration, has 7 divisions (the head is the Commissioner of Korea Correctional Service) including
Correctional Policy and Security Policy.
1. Correctional Policy(i) General Affairs & Planning Division
making overall plans on correctional administration, personnel management, staff training, inspections,public relations, and international cooperation.
(ii) Vocational Training Division
making and implementing plans on vocational training, employment, support for starting a business,
vocational training management of supplies.
(iii) Social Reintegration Division
providing rehabilitation programmes, inmate education, inmate treatment(iv) Welfare Divisionadministering budget, management, administering facilities, general accounting, making budget
plans, taking care of supplies.
2. Security Policy(i) Security Division
protection, consultation, transportation, custody, emergency training, electronic security, managing
security apparatuses.
(ii) Classification & Examination Divisionparole preparation, classification treatment, maintaining and developing policies.
(iii) Health Care Division
taking care of inmates’ health, telemedicine, handling inmate petitions, human rights andtransportation.

B. Local Correctional Institutions
1. Regional Correction Headquarters
Four Regional Correction Headquarters were established on 1 November 1999 for the reason that theCorrection Bureau could not manage and supervise efficiently all correctional institutions throughout thenation. Regional Correction Headquarters are situated in Seoul (Central Region), Taegu (Youngnam Region),Taejon (Chungchung Region) and Kwangju (Honam Region) and are performing mid-level supervision bydirectly overseeing local correctional institutions within their own jurisdictions. There are five divisions
under the Commissioner of Regional Correction Headquarters: the General Affairs Division, the Security* Chief Inspector, Seoul Detention Center, Republic of Korea.

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Division, the Industry Division, the Medical Care & Classification Division and the Educational Reformation
Division.
2. Correctional Institutions
There had been total of 20 correctional institutions and one branch when the organization of correctional
institutions was established in March 1950 right after the foundation of the Korean Government. Because ofincreasing crimes and demands for more correctional institutions for better inmates' housing and treatment,
the number of correctional facilities has increased to 50. Accordingly, there are 4 Regional Correction
Headquarters, 36 Correctional Institutions, 11 Detention Centers, and 3 branches as of 30 June 2010.
A Correctional Institution is the place where sentenced inmates are housed. The aim of these institutions
is to return inmates to society as sound citizens after their service by providing various correctional
education, reformational programmes, and vocational training, etc.
A Detention Center is the place where unsentenced inmates are housed for trial. As a detention facility,Seoul Detention Center was built in July 1967 and Suwon Detention Center was built in 1996 as a high-risestyle building (9 stories) by considering the city environment and distance to the Prosecutors' Office.
3. Organization of Local Correctional Institutions
Local correctional institutions have different organizations according to their function. The organizationof correctional institution is as follows.

II. OFFENDER TREATMENT
A. Vocational Training
Vocational training programmes are provided in order to cultivate the technical skills of prisoners soas to be easily employable upon his/her release. Since 1969, public vocational training centers have been
established under the auspices of the Ministry of Labor Affairs in 30 correctional institutions across thenation. At each training center, six months to two year training courses are provided for 66 different types ofskills, such as computer graphic design, animation, architecture, mechanics, electrical fields, etc.
B. Acquisition of Technician’s Qualifications
Trainees who have completed the training courses are encouraged to participate in technical skills
competitions hosted by the Korean Industrial Manpower Management Agency. Also, they can take license tests
conducted by municipal or provincial agencies. Young prisoners, at the age of 14 or older and with excellent
skills, can be selected as participants in national or local skill contests which are sponsored by the Korea
Committee of the International Vocational Skill Contests. They compete with skilled workers from outside.

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Many young prisoners win prizes, including gold medals, in various fields every year. For those winners,
occupational guidance is provided and priority of release on parole can be given.

C. Education
1. Moral Education for Prisoners
Moral Training has come to play a leading role in correctional education and it has produced extremely
good results. The moral training is provided to instill sound spirit in inmates, to cultivate the qualities of ademocratic citizen and to improve his/her character through rehabilitation by making them accustomed tolaw-abiding life styles. Such moral education is provided over a period of two weeks (78 hours) in regards to
16 different subjects, such as patriotic sentiment, national ethics and life skills.
2. Academic Educationi) School Courses
Academic education equivalent to elementary, junior and senior high school courses is provided in orderto help prisoners to acquire common knowledge. The education programmes and correspondence-highschool courses are provided at two juvenile correctional institutions to give them a chance to earn theirhigh-school diplomas. From 1 January 1999, several facilities were designated for the academic educationfocused facility. Owing to these efforts, 26 prisoners passed the college entrance examination in 2000.
ii) Foreign Language and Computer Education
From 1 October 1999, English and Japanese conversation courses and computer courses wereestablished at Eujungboo Correctional Institution for inmates in preparation for the information era, andto improve the possibility of employment after their release. Sixty well-behaved inmates who are selectedfrom nationwide facilities and native speakers teach the languages to the inmates. This programme will be
expanded to other facilities in the near future.

D. Rehabilitative Activities
1. CounsellingCounselling is a rehabilitative activity designed to help resolving problems or troubles of each individual
prisoner. It is to help them to change his/her way of thinking and set out behaviour into desirable patterns
and to let them recover their self-esteem. In most cases, consultation services are provided in the form ofindividual consultation between prisoners and consultants. In the case of religious consultation or mental
treatment, specialists who have educational and religious committee membership are invited to provide
them with help.
2. Religious Guidance
The religious guidance programme aims to cultivate sound morality in prisoners' minds through thepurification of their souls and religious devotion. It helps prisoners return to society as a sound persons,setting positive goals for everyone's lives.
As of June 1999, about 1,400 religious clergymen have been commissioned to be members of the Prisoners
Religious Guidance Committee. They regularly give lectures on religious doctrines, establish brotherhood
relationships and hold various religious events. Approximately 77% of prisoners have become affiliated withreligion, leading to healthy religious lives of inmates by the end of 1999.
3. Special Activities
Inmates are apt to become emotionally unstable. In order to encourage inmates to live sound and brightlives in prison, various activities are carried out accordingly: sports games, song and chorus contests,
literary work presentations, movie watching, flower gardening, farming, etc.

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