No ankle monitor for Pistorius
"No, absolutely not," spokesperson Logan Maistry said today, when asked about the devices, which offenders usually wear around their ankles.
The former Paralympic athlete will join about 3 400 people around the country who will be released into correctional supervision after having served one-sixth of their sentence in jail.
A total of 60 000 offenders are in the correctional supervision system. This includes various categories of offenders, such as those released on parole.
No details of his release could be revealed. The Correctional Services Act prevented details of specific offenders from being made public. Maistry stressed that the release did not mean that his five-year sentence had been reduced.
Release
He said the Kgosi Mampuru prison’s correctional supervision and parole board met on June 5, and approved Pistorius’s release into correctional supervision.
Maistry said releasing offenders into correctional supervision took into account the interests and security of the community, the inmate, and the victim.
The conditions imposed on an inmate could include not taking alcohol or drugs, not making contact with certain people, and staying within a magisterial district.
They could be allowed to find work, or take part in programmes to help restore relations with the community. Penalties for breaching the conditions could range from a reprimand to arrest.
Pistorius is being released after having spent 10 months in jail.
He was sentenced to five years in jail on October 21, 2014 for killing Steenkamp, his girlfriend at the time.
He shot her four times through the locked door of the toilet in his Pretoria home on February 14, 2013, apparently thinking she was an intruder.
(File photo: Gallo Images)