100 HOUSING UNITS COMMISSIONED AT SHIMO LA TEWA PRISON

By Pili Chimerah 

State Department for Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr. Salome Beacco has commissioned 100 housing units at Shimo la Tewa GK Prison as part of ongoing reforms targeted at improving the welfare of prison officers.
The Department aims at constructing 28,000 houses across the country, which will see every prison officer live inside Prison premises. 
According to the PS, the programme to avail quality affordable housing units will be actualised through the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
“We want to see how we can progressively improve housing for the Prison Officers. We already have in place a taskforce to look into how we can work with the state department for housing and other stakeholders to realize the plan.” She said.
She said her department will endeavour to fully involve beneficiaries of the programme even as she directed that prison officers be accorded an opportunity to decide what is best for them through public participation.
“We will include public participation for the officers to determine which types of houses they need," PS Beacco said.
The PS said the State Department has already initiated a modernization programme targeting prison industries and prison farms to ensure offenders can be impacted with knowledge on modern skills as well as increase production.
She revealed that the government, through the State Department, plans to recruit more Prison Officers in phases to enhance service delivery further. 
The PS later toured Kwale Probation Station and the Kwale Main and Women Prisons where she challenged staff to embrace innovative practices to address emerging challenges. 
While addressing officers at the Correctional facilities, she urged them to utilize locally available resources to address current gaps in the wake of austerity measures being undertaken by the government.  This even as she challenged them to observe financial probity by living within their means. 
“I encourage you to manage finances and families well,” she implored. 
The State Department, she retaliated, is focusing on improving the welfare of both officers and inmates through a raft of targeted reforms.