Corps of Prison and Court Guard

Responsibilities of the Corps:

1. administers remand detention and prison sentence execution,

2. protects the facilities of the Corps and psychiatric detention facility;

3. ensures the guarding of persons held in remand detention, sentenced prisoners, and persons placed in psychiatric detention facility, and exercises supervision over persons in remand detention and sentenced prisoners;

4. immediately pursues persons who escape from remand detention, sentenced prisoners who escape while serving a sentence of imprisonment or who unlawfully abscond from an open prison unit or an unguarded workplace outside a prison facility, and persons who escape from a psychiatric detention facility;

5. provides penitentiary care to sentenced prisoners and cooperates with state authorities, local self-government authorities, legal persons, natural persons, civic associations, churches, religious societies, foundations and charitable organisations in the provision of post-penitentiary care;

6. provides activities related to the employment of remand prisoners and sentenced prisoners;

7. maintains order and security in court buildings and the premises of public prosecutor's offices and ensures the undisturbed conduct of proceedings therein;

8. maintains public order in the vicinity of the facilities of the Corps, psychiatric detention facility, courts and public prosecutor's offices where necessary to achieve the purposes of remand detention, imprisonment, psychiatric detention, and the undisturbed conduct of proceedings before courts and public prosecutor's offices;

9. apprehends, within court premises, accused persons for their placement in remand detention and sentenced persons for the execution of prison sentence, in accordance with a special regulation;

10. handles complaints submitted by persons in remand detention and sentenced prisoners under the Act on the Corps of Prison and Court Guard, as well as complaints submitted under a special regulation;

11. organises and carries out, within the territory of the Slovak Republic, the escort of persons in remand detention and sentenced prisoners, and transfers persons upon completion of prison sentence to an institutional healthcare facility for protective treatment, to an educational institution for protective education, or to a psychiatric detention facility for the execution of psychiatric detention;

12. implements the witness protection programme during remand detention and the execution of prison sentences in accordance with a special regulation;

13. provides healthcare to the prison officers and employees of the Corps, persons in remand detention, sentenced prisoners, and other persons;

14. acts, within the scope laid down by a special regulation, as a law enforcement authority in criminal proceedings;

15. detects criminal offences committed by prison officers of the Corps and, within Corps facilities, by employees of the Corps, detects criminal offences committed by persons in remand detention and sentenced prisoners, and identifies their perpetrators;

16. detects administrative offences, identifies their perpetrators and, where provided by a special regulation, investigates such offences;

17. conducts searches for wanted persons within the facilities of the Corps, detention facilities, courts, public prosecutor's offices, the Ministry of Justice, and the premises of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic by consulting the police search information systems in accordance with a special regulation;

18. performs tasks relating to the fight against terrorism and organised crime;

19. cooperates with state authorities, municipalities, the armed forces, armed security forces, other legal persons and natural persons in carrying out its responsibilities;

20. cooperates with the prison services of other states;

21. maintains the records and statistics necessary for the performance of its responsibilities; and

22. performs the functions of a state administration authority and other duties where provided for by the Act on Corps of Prison and Court Guard or by a special regulation.

Within the scope of its responsibilities, the Corps also carries out crime prevention activities.