Abstract:
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of imprisonment on criminal offenders and their families. The specific objectives of the study were; to investigate the psychological impact of imprisonment on criminal offenders, to analyse the impact of imprisonment on the spouses of criminal offenders and to determine the impact of imprisonment on children of criminal offenders. The study will be relevant to policy makers as it will motivate them to set up psychology department in the prisons/ suitable rehabilitation centres and also come up with social program to help to alleviate the torture that the children and spouses of the prisoners go through as a result of imprisonment of their loved ones. Also it will provide scholars and researchers with more reference information on factors that lead to psychological stress during imprisonment. The target population were married offenders and their spouses in Narok G.K Prison where questionnaire were the main data collection instrument and sample size was 50 respondents. Data was analyzed using descriptive methods and presented in frequency tables, pie charts and percentages. From the findings it was revealed that criminal offenders who are imprisoned in various prisons are susceptible to psychological disorders due to exposure to extreme environmental conditions, intense trauma and grief as a result of separation from family and experienced intense trauma. Upon release they also suffer from re-integration conflicts which may leads to marital breakup. On the other hand, spouse suffers emotionally, feeling disorientated, loneliness and sleeping disorders. The spouses are critically stressed up by arrest and imprisonment phases. In regard to children, they are the worst hit by the imprisonment of their parents; they undergo feelings consistent with the symptoms of depression, there are academically affected significantly and their overall emotional and behavioural problems are critical. The study, recommends that good communication structure between the offenders and their families through occasion visits and phone calls is necessary to erase anxiety that arises from long spell of silence. The study further recommends that the follow ups in form of financial and social support should be made to the family who are left behind when the spouse/parent are imprisoned so that they remain intact.
