CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: SRI LANKAN DELEGATION IN KENYA FOR BENCHMARKING MISSION

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: SRI LANKAN DELEGATION IN KENYA FOR BENCHMARKING MISSION

By Martha Munyambu

Kenya has won accolades for her transformative programmes aimed at equipping offenders with requisite skills meant to facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration back into the society.

During a courtesy call on Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr Salome M-Beacco, a delegation from Sri Lanka’s Department of Community based-corrections who were in the country for a benchmarking mission aimed at sharing best practices in correctional and probation services, said Kenya has made tremendous gains towards reforming correctional services.

The team from Sri Lanka picked out the successful implementation of programs, including vocational training for inmates as well as Probation and Aftercare Services as some of the success stories that saw them chose Kenya for their mission.  
 
In her remarks, the PS emphasized Kenya's commitment to transforming its Correctional facilities into hubs of restorative justice. 

“We are prioritizing providing inmates with skills that will ease their reintegration back into society,” she said. 

According to Sri Lanka head of delegation Senerath Abeysinghe, Kenya's success in community service as an alternative to imprisonment for petty offenders where offenders perform unpaid work for the benefit of the community instead of serving time in prison as part of the community service orders program, is to be emulated. 

The benchmarking visit will include tours of various correctional facilities, including Borstal Institutions, Probation stations and Shimo La Tewa Maximum Prison.