There is an urgent need to make prison services more professional

Just a few years ago, Kenyan prisons were synonymous with wanton brutality and manifest mistreatment of both convicted and unconvicted offenders.

If your kin was incarcerated, it was enough if they came out alive. A prison sentence, no matter the length of incarceration, was deemed a death sentence.

However, that has changed over time, largely due to the intervention of human rights groups, with the famous Standard Minimum Rules being incorporated into mainstream prison rules of engagement.

Today, a minor dent on the body of a prisoner could attract the full wrath of human rights organisations and the compensation sought has the potential of financially crippling the Kenya Prisons Service.

Use of force must be measured and rational, barely enough to instil discipline.

It is a legal edict that, for any offender, imprisonment is enough punishment.

Since the abolition of the death sentence and corporal punishment, the law does not envisage a situation where any form of violence would be used within the prisons establishment, even in the instance of a riot or standoff.

It is the sole duty of a prison officer to first and foremost hold the offender in safe custody, then ensure fair administration of justice, rehabilitation and social reintegration. But it is the latter duties that are most challenging.

Recently, the country has witnessed some of the most devastating and grotesque aspects of criminality.

We have seen demented criminals bestride our social space like a colossus, leaving lifeless and mutilated bodies of innocent Kenyans in their wake.

Even members of the disciplined services have not been spared with several of them caught up in the web of crime and are facing charges in court.

These criminals are very sick — psychopaths. Logically, imprisonment would do very little to modify their behaviour and the prison officer is not equipped with the necessary psychological tools.

They will serve time in jail, pretend to be reformed, and when they are eventually released, we will witness the all-too-familiar vicious cycle of crime. It would be a waste of precious and scarce government resources.

The government, not-for-profit organisations and well-wishers need to pool resources and provide in-service prison officers with the necessary tools to combat what is, obviously, a daunting task.

Psychologists, researchers and behaviour modification enthusiasts need to visit prisons more often. They need to invest their time and resources in offering solutions to the difficult task of rehabilitation.

Prisons must continue to be havens of hope, transformation, reformation and rehabilitation.

Professionalising the service goes beyond and above merely training officers. Their remuneration must induce them to go beyond the call of duty.

They must be firm enough to instil discipline and maintain peace and also be empathetic to influence change.

While keen to take care of prisoners, the service must not neglect the prison officer’s sanity and mental well-being in the thick of things.

Therefore, coping skills and post-traumatic stress debriefing must also form part of government intervention.