•Matiangí urged those in attendance to be privy to the unintended impacts of new technology aimed at improving services and conditions of incarceration.
•He urged ACSA members to share and benefit from each other’s experiences
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Overcrowding in prisons and the emerging caliber of inmates, especially those involved in violent extremism, remain a big challenge in Kenya.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangí added quality and quantity infrastructure is also a challenge.
He suggested that stakeholders in the criminal justice system come and work together to minimize the number of offenders who end up in prison through the use of alternatives to imprisonment.
“However, there is a need to continue developing prison infrastructure to deal with the prison population which keeps surging,” he said.
He added inadequate, low quality or dilapidated infrastructure affects all areas of prison management, including poor prisoners’ and staff living conditions, poor working conditions and lack of space to carry out rehabilitation programmes.
“Equally worth noting is the emerging caliber of inmates especially those involved in violent extremism, who pose a new security threat within prisons, nations, regions and even globally.”
“I trust that these deliberations will look into how to secure our prisons, including designing infrastructure that would address the challenge of radicalization in prisons,” he said.
He made the remarks Tuesday in a speech read on his behalf by his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru during a workshop on prison infrastructures for English speaking African countries held in Nairobi.
This will provide a platform for an exchange of experiences, best practices and lessons learned in correctional facilities in infrastructure development and maintenance within the African region.
Also present was the PS State Department for Correctional Services Safina Kwekwe.
Matiangí urged those in attendance to be privy to the unintended impacts of new technology aimed at improving services and conditions of incarceration.
For instance, he said, how do the stakeholders ensure that the internet which they need for conducting virtual courts is not used by inmates to engage in criminal activities while serving their sentences.
The meeting is being organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which for decades, has been involved in places of detention in Africa with the sole aim of improving conditions of incarceration, through staff capacity building, infrastructure development and support for inmates’ programmes.
African Correctional Services Association (ACSA) members were present.
He reiterated the commitment of Kenya as a member of ACSA, which has always played the role of a peer review mechanism among Correctional Services in Africa.
Matiang’i said Kenya, like many states globally, has some financial constraints.
However, the country continues to align correctional reforms and transformational agenda to our National Development Plans.
“As a government, we remain committed to supporting our prison facilities in all areas, including rehabilitation programmes, capacity building and infrastructure development.”
He urged ACSA members to share and benefit from each other’s experiences and lessons in the areas of infrastructure development and maintenance.
“As you deliberate, think of alternative ways of construction supported by modern technology,” he said.