Assessing the Efficacy of Kenya’s Regime for Community Service Orders in Decongesting Prisons

Abstract

The introduction of CSO was among other objectives such as rehabilitation of offenders, aimed at decongesting the overcrowded prisons in Kenya post-independence. CSO as a tool goes a long way in even reorienting and allowing offenders to be accountable and beneficial members of the community. This research intends to establish the efficacy of Kenya's CSO regime in decongesting prisons. Therefore, the study aimed to understand why there has been a low uptake of CSO, particularly by judicial officers. The study acknowledges the insufficient resources required for institutional reforms and seeks to provide alternative solutions to enhance the utilization of CSO. The research aimed to identify aspects of legal, institutional, policies, and judicial practices hindering the efficiency of CSOs and challenges contributing to low judicial uptake of CSOs. The research outcomes were envisioned to stimulate amendment of legislation in CSO and formulation of policies aimed at improving efficiency in the implementation of CSO. The study concluded that legislative interventions and legal developments in Kenya's CSO regime are crisis-driven. The findings revealed that Kenya's CSO faces institutional and administrative inefficacies which have been compounded by insufficient funding and budgetary allocations. The study also concluded that the judiciary under-appreciates and underutilizes the CSO program and judicial officers have not been consistent in the imposition of non-custodial sentences. A comparative study with the UK's CSO assisted in understanding how to increase the efficiency of CSOs in Kenya. The study sought to highlight successes made in the United Kingdom that have been successful in implementing CSO and identify and propose measures adopted for the optimization of CSO. UK's CSO regime is not perfect but through a systematic review of CSO legislation the UK has managed to stay up to date on reliance on data collection, statistical analysis, and qualitative assessments, provide a comprehensive policy, and restructure the CSO institutions to fit the society's needs. The study recommends that parliament should initiate comprehensive legal reforms on CSOs to clearly define eligibility criteria for CSOs to adapt to the human rights standards of the international community and constitutional provisions. Further, it also recommends that the Public Service Commission and KPAS employ and train more CSO staff particularly supervising officers to ensure they are sufficient to provide personalized support and supervision to offenders. The study recommends the national government through the treasury increase funding and resources to the KPAS to enhance efficiency in Community Service Orders. Lastly, the study proposes a change of judicial practices concerning CSO to increase uptake by judicial officers thereby decongestion of prisons. It also recommends that the judiciary and the PAS should engage local businesses, NGOs, and CBO for enhanced community engagement and collaboration as alternative resources for placement and supervision.