Persons found guilty of petty offences will soon serve community service as opposed to a jail term in a move to decongest prisons in the country.

Speaking during a tour of Nakuru GK Prison, PS Correctional services Mary Muthoni said her department has called for the review of inmates who are in for petty offenses in the quest for decongesting prisons.

“People coming in for petty offenses should be given an alternative way to serve their sentencing like being given community work rather than having them behind bars,” she noted.

Ms Muthoni also mentioned that the judiciary is working on reviewing cases of mothers convicted or remanded in prison with their children so as to find a way of ensuring the children do not grow up in the prison.

“In Nakuru prison we have 10 children currently living in prison while nationwide as of today morning we had 300 children, " she added.

Ms Muthoni was on a tour of different prison facilities to find out the state pf prisons in the country and find ways of improving the standards for both prisoners and prison wardens.

“I know that the welfare of prisoners for a long time has not been the best. We are looking into it and ensuring that we keep to the UN standards,” she said.

Ms Muthoni promised to have the affordable housing project benefit prison wardens in various parts of the country.

She went on to ask Kenyans to use alternative conflict resolution mechanisms to solve issues rather than having going to court.

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Petty Ofenders to Serve Community Service in New Prison Reforms

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