Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 119317,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/119317/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 133,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Musyoka",
    "speaker_title": "November 26, 2009 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4106 The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 191,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Musyoka Ndambuki",
        "slug": "gideon-ndambuki"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a) The Office of the Vice-President and Ministry of Home Affairs has plans to expand prison facilities in the country; indeed, in all district administrative centres. Already four new prisons have recently been constructed. A construction of nine others is also in progress. The Ministry has also completed construction of new inmate accommodation blocks in existing prisons with the latest completion in 12 stations. Thirty six others are currently under construction. Beyond expansion of prison facilities, the Ministry is exploring other methods to ease inmate congestion, particularly the PS and CSO programmes under which offender correction is undertaken on non-custodial basis. (b) Some prisoners, both remand and convicted, are usually admitted in prison already with infectious and ill health quite akin to what obtains in the communities that such inmates will have come from. Prison authorities, therefore, conduct medical examinations including VCT on all incoming prisoners as quickly as possible and commence treatment where applicable besides holding cases of infectious disease such as TB in exclusive facilities. The Prisons Department also runs sensitization programmes to control the spread of HIV/AIDS; intensive surveillance systems are applied to deter potential cases of unbecoming or abnormal behavior. (c) The CSO and PS including the after-care programmes run smoothly on the highest possible standard of professional integrity. Furthermore, the Ministry has very strong corruption prevention structures and programmes including specialized committees, appointment of integrity assurance officers and open-day activities. Thirteen cases of professional misconduct were reported in the last 10 years since the CSO programme began. Five of the cases were found to be invalid, four were removed from the service and four are before the courts. Tremendous gains have, therefore, accrued since bringing into operation of the CSO programme. The programme serves about 52,000 offenders every year and has so far served a total of 520,000 offenders since its inception in 1999. These huge figures translate into cost-saving since this population would have had to be maintained in custody at the expense of the taxpayer. The CSO programmes help to maintain family ties and values between the offender and the kith and kin. These are ties that could have been severed in case of custodial sentence. The programme is flexible enough to allow the offender to continue with usual employment and fend for family and dependants. The programme affords the community a sense of justice since the offender pays reparation through work on community projects. The programme also creates opportunity for employment in that some offenders are eventually offered formal employment and retained at the local institutions. (d) A prison facility will be established in Uriri District in accordance with the existing plan of the Ministry to establish a prison facility in every administrative district and more so where we have a magistrate court nearby. However, the programme is heavily dependent on the availability of funds, the land upon which the facility can be situated and on the hierarchy of priority that is in turn based on proximity to an existing facility. Meanwhile, districts without a prison will continue to use one or others that are nearest to them. In the case of Uriri District, construction work will commence as soon as funds and land are available and in consideration of allocation over needs of the district"
}