Lack of proper system makes it hard to track ex-convicts

By Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux

Reports of ex-convicts engagement in crime have raised questions on mechanisms to track them upon completion of their sentences, and availability of support systems to prevent their relapse.

While there are currently no statistics to show the extent of involvement in crime among past offenders, law enforcers say there is a probability of ex-convicts returning to criminal activities if not well supervised.

“We would need statistics to back this claim, but experience has shown there are some criminals whose character does not change even after they leave prison,” says Deputy Police Spokesman Charles Owino.

In May, a middle-aged ex-convict was jailed for life for defiling a three-year-old girl in Kahawa, Nairobi. In January last year, three men were gunned down by police along the Lang’ata Road, Nairobi.

The controversial shooting led to suspension of the officers involved, amid claims that the men – some of whom were said to be ex-convicts – were armed gangsters.

Months earlier, a Kenyan woman, who had completed her sentence at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison, was arrested in Italy for possession of cocaine.

Judith Akinyi who authored a book, Deadly Money Maker, while in prison, detailing how she was sucked into a life of drug trafficking, was found unconscious on the streets of Rome after swallowing pellets of the drug.

This also brings to focus the monitoring system to ensure supervision and rehabilitation of former prisoners.

Repealing of law

The deputy police spokesman says the repealing of a law in 2003 that previously gave police a wider mandate to monitor ex-offenders has made it difficult for the force to keep tabs on former prisoners.

“Under the supervisees law, police knew where an ex-convict was living and what they were doing. The periods allowed for this type of supervision ranged between one to five years, depending on what crime an individual had committed,” says Owino.

However, such supervision has in some jurisdictions been viewed as ‘second punishment’ for ex-offenders, and to some extent an infringement of their rights since they have already served their time.

Assistant Director Probation and Aftercare Services, Clement Oketch, says current laws generally have no provision for post-penal follow ups.

“Majority of former offenders are not subject to any kind of supervision. Currently, only the Sexual Offences Act makes such provision, ” Mr Oketch says.

Section 39 of the Sexual Offences Act provides for supervision of sexual offenders upon their release from prison for a period of up to five years. Depending on the orders of the court, such an individual may even be required to refrain from visiting specified locations or seek employment of a specified nature.

According to Oketch, ‘prolific offenders’ pose the biggest challenge in monitoring and are often the ones that get least support for re-integration.

‘Prolific offenders’ refers to persons serving short sentences of up to three years.

Department of probation

The Department of Probation and Aftercare Services was created by an Act of Parliament in 1946. It contributes to administration of justice in several ways including provision of information on offenders as required by courts, supervision of non-custodial court orders, providing information to penal institutions on offenders and their background and identifying workplaces for community service for offenders.

Its functions include creating linkages between ex-inmates and their communities to achieve re-integration and conducting social enquiries and submitting reports to discharge boards.

This helps the boards to determine if a prisoner should be released. Such information also helps to determine safety of the convict and the community, in the event of their release.

Aftercare services, however, only cater for certain categories of ex-offenders. These are young offenders released from juvenile institutions, long-term prisoners, and psychiatric offenders.

Long term prisoners are those who have served sentences exceeding seven years, while psychiatric offenders are those found to have been in an unstable state of mind when they committed a crime.

Supervision for long-term ex-offenders is offered on voluntary basis and is largely an administrative arrangement between the prisons and department of probation.

A 2007 Ministry of Home Affairs report on impediments to offender reintegration and resettlement cites various factors that inhibit successful implementation of aftercare programmes.

These include lack of a policy framework, inadequate resource allocation, constraints in getting information about ex-offenders, negative attitude towards such persons from the community and inadequate capacity in terms of skill and staff to implement such programmes.  At the moment, there are 53,000 prisoners held in 104 prisons countrywide. About 36 per cent of this are remandees – those charged with a crime and denied bail or are unable to meet bail conditions set by the court.

“That figure has come down from 48 per cent,” says Oketch.

But according to the National Bureau of Statistics 2012 Economic survey, prison populations stood at 88,631 in 2010 and 76,991 last year.

Mr Emmanuel Obiero, a prisons paralegal officer at the Legal Research Foundation says lack of strategic intervention by Government makes it difficult to effectively monitor ex-convicts and ensure their re-integration into an often hostile community.

Preparing communities

“It is difficult for the police to do this alone and there is need for establishment of a separate institution that would work closely with the police service and prisons department,” he says.

Obiero says some NGOs have tried to set up programmes that provide support and keep track of ex-offenders, but they only cater to certain categories of former prisoners and lack the capacity to reach all prisons.

Mr Eluid Ngunjiri who runs one such organisation says prisoners often lose their self esteem and require the support of communities to get back on their feet upon completion of their sentences. Often, they lack this support, making it easier for them to go back into a life of crime.

Ngunjiri, the Executive director of Resource Oriented Development Initiatives, says the organisation aims to create a network of various initiatives by ex-offenders including one to fight crime.

Obiero proposes mechanisms that can be used to prepare communities for the return of ex-offenders both for reconciliation and monitoring purposes.

“Ex-offenders often feel isolated and unaccepted by the community thus increasing their chances of going back to crime,” says Obiero.

He also faults use of manual systems in prisons that make it difficult to keep updated records of prisoners and tracking them upon release.

Kenya National Human Rights Commissioner Samson Omondi cites countries like South Africa have systems of  tracking former  prisoners.

“Ex-offenders are regularly monitored for various periods ranging from six months to a year before they are left on their own. This contrasts our system where the society is generally not receptive to ex-convicts and there are no effective structures to support their re-integration,” he says.