By IPS Correspondents
NAIROBI, Jul 17 2006 (IPS)

A call has been made in Kenya for initiatives to ease the re-entry of prisoners into society – this after government’s Jul. 13 announcement that almost 8,000 inmates will be freed to reduce overcrowding in jails.

“A lot of civic education needs to be done to inform the public that people who go to prison are members of our society,” said Samwel Mohochi, acting executive director of the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU). The IMLU is a non-governmental organisation based in the capital, Nairobi, which has been documenting torture in prisons. The unit also helps torture victims recover from their experiences.

Mohochi’s words were echoed by a public relations staffer in the prisons department.

“The community is still non-receptive to inmates. In the event that these people are not able to settle back in the community, they commit (new) offences,” the staffer told IPS.

“If these people were received well into society, if they got a soft landing, maybe they would be able to do something constructive with their lives.”

Official statistics indicate that there are over 50,000 inmates in the country’s 92 prisons, which are only supposed to house 16,000.

“Most of the prison facilities date back to colonial times, with a few built soon after independence when the population of Kenya was less than 10 million,” Vice President Moody Awori said in the statement informing the public that 7,713 prisoners were to be released. United Nations figures now put the population at about 33 million.

Congestion in jails has also been attributed to the high number of pending court cases, with some 60 percent of prisoners being on remand, according to Mohochi.

But, while police blame the courts for being too slow in trying inmates, the judiciary accuses police of being over-zealous in arresting petty offenders. Prison officials say most of those crowding jails are awaiting trial for minor crimes.

Government has previously announced plans to hire more magistrates to relieve court backlogs; but a lack of funding has plagued these initiatives.

News of the imminent release has sparked fears of an upsurge in crime, even though government assures citizens that measures are in place to prevent this from happening. Awori points to the Community Service Order: a 1996 regulation that requires the conduct of those freed to be reviewed regularly, to guard against repeat offences.

The decision to release prisoners follows a recent exposé of unacceptable conditions in Meru Prison in eastern Kenya, also the subject of an earlier scandal.

The facility was visited last month by journalists and members of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, a government-appointed watchdog, who found 73 prisoners crammed in a cell meant for 20.

This situation was repeated in other cells. The jail was built to accommodate a maximum of 500 inmates, but now houses 1,600, according to the IMLU.

In the absence of proper sanitation, buckets of waste had been hung on the cell walls and doors. Unhygienic conditions and overcrowding have made outbreaks of disease common at the prison, where inmates also had open sores on their legs and hands.

In 2004, five Meru inmates were found dead in their cell. Another prisoner died on the way to hospital, while 23 others were admitted to Meru District Hospital in a critical condition.

Prison officials blamed the deaths on suffocation; but, a police report indicated that some of the bodies bore signs of injury. Similarly, an investigation by the IMLU revealed that most of the deceased had died from head and chest injuries, others from strangulation.

Prisoners later indicated that those who died had refused orders to share a small cell which was already occupied by other inmates. The prisoners said this had enraged the warders, who beat those who disobeyed to death.

The prisons department employee noted that inadequate numbers of staff at jails could be contributing to abuse of inmates: “It is likely that because of the larger number of inmates vis-à-vis that of personnel, security at the prisons may be compromised. The warders and other personnel may feel over-stretched, and violence may occur.”

Mohochi also said that better training of staffers was needed.

“Prison reforms must address retraining of prison officers. The training they have is one that was inherited from the colonial masters. It is dehumanising; it is one (that allows guards) to clobber inmates, to make them squat, and strip them naked.”

Prison reforms, championed by the vice president, have been underway since 2003. Inmates are now allowed conjugal visits, television sets, mattresses and new uniforms – as well as buses for transportation. Previously, they were transported in caged lorries.

But, as the situation at Meru Prison shows, much remains be done.

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