Justice relief plan is key to prison reform

In his book The long road to freedomFormer South African President Nelson Mandela said, “No one really knows a nation until he has been in its prisons.” The global icon spent 27 years in prison before becoming South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

The Constitution of Kenya guarantees equal rights to every human being, regardless of sex, race, colour, creed or political opinion, as well as the inalienable right to participate in the shaping of the society in which he lives through free and democratic political processes.

The responsibilities of the State Department for Correctional Services include the containment and secure custody of inmates; the supervision, rehabilitation, reform and reintegration of offenders; the promotion of justice; the supervision of juvenile offenders in correctional facilities and juvenile correctional training centers; and the preparation and provision of information to courts and correctional facilities.

In order to reduce recidivism, prisons have become more focused on rehabilitation than on retribution. It is precisely this reality that has led the government to initiate a series of reforms in the penal sector through the prison system to transform it into an instrument for promoting rehabilitation, empowerment and social justice.

However, this endeavour faces a host of challenges, most notably prison congestion. Kenya's prison population has increased from about 50,000 three years ago to an average of 62,000 inmates, while congestion has increased from 167 percent to 206 percent.

Even though the ratio of convicted offenders to pre-trial detainees is in line with internationally recognised best practice of 55:45, the high number of pre-trial detainees is nevertheless a cause for great concern, as they are presumed innocent until they are convicted and thus cannot undergo any meaningful rehabilitation.

While Kenya's population continues to grow, other actors in the criminal justice system have also evolved in parallel with population growth. The same cannot be said for the penal system, as the British East Africa Company, the predecessor of the colony of Kenya, established its first prison at Fort Jesus in 1895 before moving to Nairobi in 1907.

It is therefore not surprising that Chief Justice Martha Koome launched an initiative to decongest prisons this week as part of the Fast Track Justice Initiative. The programme, which will be implemented in two phases, will involve reviewing bail and surety conditions for those in custody and detention centres in Nairobi region. Initially, 376 offenders will benefit. In the second phase, the verdicts will be reviewed in the Supreme Court.

This noble initiative represents a significant step in the ongoing effort to address the critical problems that plague our prison system and, by extension, our entire criminal justice system.

The need for urgent and sustained interventions to intensify such efforts to relieve the burden on prisons within the scope of legal and constitutional possibilities cannot be overemphasized.

These efforts arise from the recognition that the challenges before us require not only immediate action, but also sustained and strategic efforts to transform our prison system into one that meets the highest standards of justice and human dignity.

To address this problem, we as all stakeholders in the criminal justice system must make a concerted effort.

Dr. Beacco is Principal Secretary of the State Department for Correctional Services