PROBATION TEACHING PETTY OFFENDERS ON WAYS OF GETTING MONEY WHEN THEY
LEAVE PRISON.
JANE MUGAMBI 28TH SEPT 2011.
The Kirinyaga Central Probation department has embarked on a
systematic process geared not only in promoting crime prevention
activities but also impart the offenders with self-sustenance skills
once they are through with their probation stints.
“We have undertaken a comprehensive program for CSO(Community Service
Offenders) to help them work part-time and also give them a chance to
do alternative jobs’’ said Mr. Mwaniki Korugari, Kirinyaga District
Probation Officer.
‘’This is usually possible since we teach them skills that equip them
to be economically empowered in developing not only himself but the
also the society.’’
The Probation Service department was instituted in the Office of the
Vice President and Ministry of Home Affairs in 1999.It’s main agenda
was to assist petty offenders in resettlement and reintegration in the
society through provision of unpaid work to government institutions
and members of public.
The CSO are usually allocated a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5
working hours everyday at their designated sites.
It also provides counseling services to them in order to reduce the
social stigma attached to criminals by the society.
The department mostly deals with people serving non-custodial
sentences in petty offences like drunkenness and disorder, creating
disturbance, assault, affray and being in possession of local liquor.
It also aims in empowering offenders improve their quality of life
through self-help initiatives that tap their unutilized skills.
The CSO are mostly deployed in government and public institutions like
schools, hospitals, construction sites and rural water projects where
they provide unpaid community service.
“It is a pay-back to the public since they had offended the public’’
says Mwaniki.
The department has an 1/8 acre of land where CSO are trained in good
crop husbandry not only to make them self dependent but also enable
the society benefit as well.
The specially prepared demonstration plots utilize natural organic
systems which are not only locally available but have little or no
side effects.
They are also less costly in relation to convection horticulture farming.
Using improvised watering equipments and mulch the department has
given the trainees a hands on skill approach in growing of vegetables
like kales, spinach, lettuce, carrots, amaranths, tomatoes and onions
Besides horticulture and as a mitigation to deforestation there are
nurseries where eucalyptus and bougainvillaea seedlings have been
grown to be distributed to the CSO to plant in their farms back in the
villages.
According to Mr. Mwaniki the entire farming practice is carried out
organically using green manure mulch and biological pest control
methods.
“After probation we do follow up on the offenders by giving them seeds
to start up own projects, ’’added Mr. Mwaniki.
“This has seen an 85% reduction in new offences among the CSO and also
crime in the District.’’
ENDS…
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