Restorative Ex-Prisoner Reintegration

Restorative Ex-Prisoner Reintegration

A majority of convicted prisoners have at least one prior conviction, either as a juvenile or an adult, we therefore believe that comprehensive crime prevention and community development programs should include effective measures to prevent and stop the cycle of recidivism. 

Prisoners confined in correctional institutions are confronted by a range of social, economic and personal challenges that tend to become obstacles for effective reintegration and community acceptance.

Ex-prisoners released from prison face a variety of challenges that may hinder their ability to become law-abiding citizens. There are also several practical challenges that must be faced by offenders at the time of their release, including

  1. lack of basic needs such as food, clothing and even transport to their homes
  2. rejection by immediate family members, friends and the community thus finding it hard to get suitable accommodation at time of release
  3. lack of self-support in form of employment income, lack of savings etc.
  4. difficulty in accessing a range of everyday necessities and amenities

Interventions

 

RODI has been running a very successful ex-prisoner re-integration intervention which involves follow up of trained prisoners upon release and working with them and their home communities to provide technical backstopping during the reintegration process.

 

Over the last 20 years of partnership with Kenya Prisons Service, we have supported reintegration of more than 1,200 ex-prisoners in Kenya and other neighboring countries. However, this forms only 20% of those RODI has trained. About 80% of trained prisoners are not followed up due to limited resources.

 

As part of reintegration, ex-prisoners are encouraged to practice and pass on the skills learned to the community; they are also followed up to monitor their performance. To speed up their acceptance and to address poverty at community level, ex-prisoners are encouraged to form Community Livelihood Improvement Groups (CLIGs); to date we have more than 30 CLIGs formed around ex-prisoners.

 

The follow up intervention has contributed to a significant reduction of re-offending among ex-prisoners whereby only 6% have re-offended as compared the national average re-offending rate of 47%. This is a great contribution to the country’s effort of rehabilitation and reintegration.