| dc.description.abstract | Punishment of criminal offenders is a barometer of culture. It signifies society
values, morality, sensibility and reasoning. As we approach the end of the 20th
century, issues of imprisonment are topical. More than ever before,
overcrowding, riots, prisoner suicide, staff discontentment and inhuman
conditions are making headlines both in the local and the international media.
Answers to the questions as to what should be done about prison system are
regularly disputed by politicians, penal policy makers, academics, reform
groups, mass media, members of the public as well as the prisoners themselves.
For the first time in the history of this country, prisons reforms became a priority
of the government when the NARC government came to power in 2003. This
research is a culmination of an attempt to examine some of the reforms
entrenched in penal institutions and the achievements made so far with regard to
training and rehabilitation of offenders.
Criticisms of prisons and proposals for reform of penal system are not a recent
phenomenon. Since the inception of imprisonment as a form of punishment
about 200 years ago, criticisms of it has been endemic to its history (Ignatieff
1978:19).
Just as practices of punishment have punishment have undergone a series of
transformation, so have strategies and discourses of penal reform. From
sociological and criminological perspective, the most striking feature of penal
institutions in the world over has drastic increase in alternative to imprisonment.
Given that imprisonment as a penal strategy appears to be beyond meaningful
reform, reformers have no alternative but look at other ways of dealing with the
offenders. Viewed as appealing by reformers and administrators for
humanitarian, fiscal and utilitarian reasons, existing programmes such as
probation, temporary release and half way houses have gained a more prominent public profile. That imprisonment continues to be criticized is an
indication of perceived limitations of this reformist endevour.
Theissue of prisons overcrowding, disturbance within prisons and of staff and
prisoners grievances are often seen as a manifestation of the overriding problem
oflarge prisoners population. Many observers therefore believe that the
promisesmade about alternatives to imprisonment have not been fully utilized.
It has been argued that despite the introduction of alternatives to imprisonment,
prison populations have remained stable and increased in some places.
Alternatives therefore are believed to have had little or no impact in constraining
and reducing the use of imprisonment. The question that arises therefore is
whether or not the media has played its rightful role of informing the publics
alternatives to imprisonment so that the same can be accepted as a sentencing
option.
On the other hand, prisons have displayed a remarkable immunity not only to
historical attempts at reform within its walls but also to contemporary efforts at
bringing inmates outside them (David Downes's 1988;4)
Reforms have been tried and found wanting as has been reported in a section of
the media. Its continued use is then declared something a kin to natural law
beyond the realms of political choice or informed decision making.
The study sought to unearth reasons behind the negative publicity that penal
institutions have received from across section of the mainstream media. The
study was conducted through field survey in three penal institutions in Nairobi
area. The main tools of data collection was structured questionnaires and key
informant interviews. The justification for this study was that although the media is a major
stakeholder in the criminal justice system, its role in informing and educating the
publics the meaning of reforms has not been brought out clearly by the main
stream media. The study sought to examine some of the factors that may be
influencing this perception.
The paper concludes that various factors influence the negative publicity about
Prisons in Kenya namely existing legislation where prisons are mandated to
operate as closed entities, Lack of communication structure within the
department and the long and bureaucratic structure within the government
cycles among others.
The major recommendations include the need to review existing legislation
under which prisons operate, establishing a communications office with trained
public relations officers to enable free flow of information from top to bottom.
The need for awareness creation is also important with a view to encourage
demand for accessing information and make the public appreciate that it has a
right to access information in the custody of prisons authorities among others. | en |
