Influence Of Prison Education On Recidivism In Kiambu County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Prisoners re-entry into the society has emerged as a lens through which to view the numerous issues related to the process of prisoner incarceration, release and subsequent failure or success on the outside world. There is, therefore, need to look into the influence prison education has on recidivism, with the aim of improving the quality of education for inmates in terms of physical facilities, manpower requirements and funding. The objectives of the study were: to establish the influence prisoners rehabilitative education on recidivism, to assess the status of educational and vocational facilities in prisons and to identify the challenges facing inmates rehabilitative education in Kiambu County. The study was based on human capital theory. This theory was relevant since prison education should be externally efficient by making prisoners upon release participate in economic development and societal wellbeing. The target population of this study comprised 2 prison wardens, 23 prison instructors and the 1,364 prisoners. The study employed descriptive survey design. The selected sample for this study comprised 2 (100%) officers in charge, 5 (20%) prison teachers and 136 (10%) inmates both first-time offenders and recidivist inmates from 2 prisons in Kiambu County. Purposive sampling was used to select the only prison with both male and female prisoners and also to select the officers in charge to be interviewed. From the remaining two male prisons, one prison was used for pilot study meaning the remaining one male prison was automatically included in study. The prisoners were selected purposively to include first time offenders and recidivist inmate. Participants were selected through simple random sampling. Observation guide, questionnaires and interview schedules were the major tools for data collection. Questionnaires were administered to prison instructors (teachers) and inmates, while interviews were administered to officer in charge. The researcher sought the assistance of the supervisors, who as experts in research improved content validity of the instruments. The co-efficient value 0.61 was obtained, this was a positive result thus the reliability of the instruments was acceptable. The data were analyzed descriptively using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Qualitative data obtained were grouped according to study objectives and then coded. The result was presented in form of tables and figures. The researcher found that prison in Kiambu County host large number of young prisoners who are not well educated. Prisons partly depended on volunteers teachers, prison teachers lack experience as their counterparts outside prison, there is severe shortage of learning facilities, education in prisons is voluntary, there is severe conflict between education time table and work schedule, the level of recidivism stands between 45% and 50% partly due to low education attainment, between 30 and 40% of recidivist inmates had benefitted from prison education. Lack of employment, capital and societal attitudes were other factors leading to recidivism. Based on the finding, the following recommendations were made; prisons should be provided with enough qualified teaching professions. Adequate teaching and learning resources should be provided. Prison education should be compulsory. Rehabilitative education should be given more priority than work. TSC should play a role by providing experienced teachers. Finally, provision of finances at prison level should be enhanced in order to meet the day-to-day educational needs.