Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS) was established under Law N ° 34/2010 of 12/11/2010 as result of merging the former National Prisons Service (NPS) and the Executive Secretariat of National Committee of Community Services as an alternative penalty to imprisonment (TIG).

Since its establishment, RCS was mandated primarily to ensure reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates. Furthermore, RCS has to become an income generating institution with view to become self- reliance in all its needs and requirements rather than relying only on the government budget. The RCS mandate is manifested in four main pillars namely Justice, Correction, Knowledge and Production.

On 20th July   2011  the   cabinet  meeting chaired by His Excellence Paul KAGAME in its session appointed  Maj. General Paul Rwarakabije as head of Rwanda Correctional Service and  DCGP  Mary Gahonzire as Deputy and officially taken over the merged institutions 0n 26 July 2011. 

Rwanda Correctional Service is mandated to implement the general policy and strategies for effective management of Inmates and Tigistes with number of prisoners 52,926, number of Tigistes 744 and 1604 prison Guards as on 02/04/2016, with inadequate budget funding provided for  custody and care of inmates which takes the biggest percentage of the budget.

In July 2014, there was general restructuring in all Government institutions and in September, 2014, RCS was reinforced with Officers and Men from Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) and transformed into a security force with additional responsibilities.