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{
    "id": 28132,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/28132/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 666,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Otieno",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Public Service",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy to second this Bill. It is one of those innovative approaches in our fair administration in the country. The Constitution has made a significant change that we are not any more talking of prisons. Actually, we are talking of correctional services. The prison concept is that if you are jailed for ten years, you take ten years and then you are released, whether you have changed or not. But a correctional institution means that a prisoner can be jailed for 20 years, but if he feels, and it can be shown that he has been corrected within five years, there has to be a mechanism to shorten the imprisonment term for that kind of prisoner. So, this Bill is so important that there will be a committee that will continuously be receiving and reviewing petitions from the different correctional facilities. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the only weakness that may be in this Bill that needs to be looked at is how the pardon officers are going to be appointed in each of our prisons; the training that those pardoning officers will require and the training that our prisons officers will need to have to change their mentality from administrators of prisons to managers of correctional facilities. The pardon officers are the ones who will be generating activity to the Committee. Therefore, they have to be active enough to scrutinize all our prisoners, so that they can determine who is proceeding well on the correctional path and may deserve the application of the power of mercy. Maybe, after the whole process commences, more powers will be given to the Committee in practice as to how they will work. After they get research findings, how they will initiate action within the correctional facilities, so that actively, the fewer people that can stay in prison for very short periods, the better for us. As of now, the prisons are bursting. There are people in prisons who do not need to be there anymore. They should have left prison a long time ago. Sometimes even their productivity within the prisons is not sufficient. Some have read, obtained degrees and have passed examinations, but nobody is checking whether they do not deserve to stay more in prison. Being in prison is not adding any more value to the country or to the Prison Department itself. This is a very important Bill. It will set in motion a process by which we will be reviewing our prisoners more frequently, to be able to exercise the power of mercy more actively and reduce not only the attitude of the workers, but the attitude of Kenyans; that if you commit an offence and go to prison, if you can change and we observe that you have changed, you do not have to rot in prison for the rest of your live."
}