The Effectiveness Of Prison Service On Offender Rehabilitation In Kenya: The Case Of Narok Prisons

Abstract

ABSTRACT The problem of crime in Kenya is reported to be worsening and it needs to be addressed in the most effective way especially by the Government of Kenya. The imprisonment approach has continued to be used as a major way of rehabilitating offenders in the hope of reducing if not eliminating the crime problem. Some critics of the approach argue that prisons have not achieved their objective of rehabilitating offenders since there is increase in crime rates both in the rural and the urban settings where most crimes are reported to be committed by offenders who have been imprisoned more than once. Our prisons are also filled by this category of offenders. This implies that there is a problem in the functioning of the Prisons Service. It is therefore against this background that the main objective of this study is to examine the factors undermining the effectiveness of prison officers in the rehabilitation of offenders. The study assumes that problems in the work environment of prison officers affected the officers' effectiveness in the rehabilitation of offenders. It also assumed that prisons are not effective in the rehabilitation of offenders in Kenya. To achieve the objectives of the study, a research is conducted among ex-prisoners living in Narok. The site is chosen as the study site mainly for its convenience and advantage to the researcher especially in terms of increased mobility and easier tracing of the key respondents since she is a current resident. The survey is the primary method of data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative data is collected using interviews.