2. BACKGROUND 2.1 The Barberton Management Area comprises Barberton Maximum, Barberton Med A, Barberton Med B, Barberton Youth Centre, Nelspruit and Lydenburg. At the time of the visit the area accommodated 3 653 sentenced offenders and 956 remand detainees. The Youth Centre accommodated 368 juvenile offenders. The Nelspruit and Lydenburg centres were not visited on this occasion. 2.2 The Area had a staff establishment of 1 303 funded posts, of which 148 had at the time of the visit not yet been filled. The area employed 1 025 centre-based officials, 76 non-centre based officials, and 54 professional staff. The professional staff comprised 28 professional nurses, 15 educators, 2 psychologists, 6 social workers and 3 artisans. 2.3 The area reported six critical challenges in the area of maintenance, inmate population, security, and the management of parole. These will be elaborated upon in our observations.