Heed Judiciary's call to reform our jail system

Reforms initiated by former vice president Moody Awori in the Prisons Department appear to have floundered after he left office. At the time, the VP introduced measures that accorded inmates some dignity. For the first time, prisoners enjoyed watching television and sleeping on mattresses, a reversal from the punitive, dehumanising custom of sleeping on the hard, cold floor, often without blankets.

Ideally, prisons are corrective institutions, but they appear to have failed to achieve their purpose. They mistreat prisoners and, therefore, cause some of them to come out more hardened after serving their terms.