We must transform criminal justice system

Coming a week before the World Day Against the Death Penalty, my conversation with US Judge Victoria Pratt will inspire me for a while. As we mark the day on October 10, she may have a few simple ideas that could transform the Kenyan criminal justice system. From the overcrowded jails in Africa and Asia to the prison-industrial complex of the US, thousands of young men and women find themselves packed into courtrooms with only one of two exit options, prison or death row.

According to the National Council on the Administration of Justice, the police and county askaris arrest four million people every two years. Seventy per cent were arrested on petty offences such as drunk and disorderly, trading without a licence, commercial sex, fighting, petty theft and fraud. Over 85 per cent of those remanded and imprisoned do not have legal representation. Depending on the speed of that conveyor belt of criminal justice system, they go to saturated prisons. Fifty-five thousand inmates cram into prisons with a capacity of 30,000.