The Silver Lining in the Covid-19 Cloud: An Appraisal of Accelerated Prison Decongestion in Kenya

ABSTRACT

Kenya, like most developing countries, has for a long time grappled with overcrowding in its penal institutions. Prison decongestion has hence been a key focus area of the penal reforms which were rolled out in 2002. The reforms have however been relegated to the back burner amidst competing priorities. When the country announced its first COVID-19 case on March 13, 2020, penal institutions were immediately identified as weak links in the containment of the pandemic. The Institutions were put on a total lockdown and de-congestion measures upscaled as a means of curbing the spread in prisons. So far, the exercise has resulted in the release of over 12,000 inmates. This paper discusses the implementation of the decongestion measures during COVID-19 amidst certain systemic challenges incidental to its implementation and how the gains from the COVID-19 period can be infused into long terms policies of prison decongestion.

KEYWORDS:

• Community service order
• non-custodial sentence
• prison decongestion
• Covid-19
• Pandemic
• Alternatives to incarceration
• Early release mechanisms
• Prison reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).