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{
    "id": 593381,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/593381/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 367,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Billow",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 260,
        "legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
        "slug": "billow-kerrow"
    },
    "content": "Temporary Speaker, Sir, indeed the leader of the delegation from Mandera County will speak to support this Motion. The essence of prison is correction. In the United States of America (USA), a prison is referred to as a correction institution. The idea is to change an offender in prison so that when he is released, he is reformed. Unfortunately, our institutions, historically, have achieved the opposite objective; that after coming out of those institutions, one comes out a more hardened criminal than before. The obvious reason is about the prison environment. However, over the years, attempts have been made to reform our prisons and other correctional facilities. I remember when the former Vice President Moody Awori was in charge of this docket. He introduced reforms and, in fact, he made the lives of people there a bit comfortable. He brought reforms that were necessary. However, if you go across this country, you will find that the level of investment by the Government in the institution of prison is extremely low. It is not a place to rehabilitate people. Therefore, the Government in terms of allocating resources and investing in that institution looks at it as a waste of resources. They are all in a dilapidated condition. Prisons are an eye sore in most parts of this country. That is the mindset that needs to change. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in the rest of the world, people have moved on. Prisons have been modified and modernized to the extent that they have now been outsourced to the private sector in some countries where you literally go into a hotel-kind of room run by the private sector, not by the Government. If people are heading there, they are actualizing the objective of a prison which is to rehabilitate. It is not a place to punish or make one a worse criminal than he or she is. Unfortunately, in parts of this world, there are still situations where certain governments, for example, the United States of America (USA) has not lived up to the expectations. It is creating the kind of prisons that the British created in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries which resulted in some of the countries in this world today; where an island is taken as a detention camp or prison like what we have in Guantanamo Bay and so on. People are held in situations where the objective is not to rehabilitate but to punish. That is the mindset that we still have in our country. That needs to change. The objective of this Motion should be to create that change whether through legislation as envisaged in this Motion or otherwise but the objective of this Committee should be to bring that change. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said about the fact that we seem to be dumping everyone in prison; from those who have been arrested on small misdemeanors here and there, from traffic offences, to anything; people have been dumped together. If you go to Central Police Station now – and I agree with the proposal by Sen. Kittony that we should amend to include even the remand prisons because they still form part of the prison - you find anyone, if today you were arrested for anything here, you will be dumped together. That situation has created a very bad image of our prisons. We have a The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}