Counseling of women in selected prisons in Kenya: The practices, challenges and way forward

Abstract

Despite the many types of punishment provided by the penal Code, imprisonment is the commonly adopted strategy in Kenya. For imprisonment to be effective in reforming offenders it must be supported with several rehabilitation programs such as counseling, vocational training, and education among other programs. Counseling of offenders forms a very core part of the rehabilitation process. However, for counseling of women in prison to be effective the program must be implemented by competent and adequate professionals, have financial resources, have an implementation manual and be evaluated on a regular basis. It is against this background that this paper analyses counseling of women in prison as one of the rehabilitation strategies adopted by prisons in Kenya by looking at the practice and the challenges that are facing the program. In terms of the practice the paper notes that the program is not supported by a policy guideline, it is not provided to all women in prison, it lacks implementation manual, lacks adequate staff, the offices and other facilities are lacking and the program is never evaluated.