Author: Dr. John Onyango Omboto Summary: Imprisonment as a form of punishment can be seen as a necessary evil. Whereas it has several demeri...
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Author: Dr. John Onyango Omboto
Summary:
Imprisonment as a form of punishment can be seen as a necessary evil. Whereas it has several demerits and many other factors that negate its capacity to reform and rehabilitate convicts, states must do with it to protect society members against vicious offenders who commit felonies. The weaknesses embedded in imprisonment are little freedom for prisoners, unbearable confinement conditions, deterioration of convicts’ vocational and professional skills, contamination of petty offenders by hard-core convicts, and interruption of family life. Others include social stigma and discrimination against released convicts and general socio-economic deterioration. While this is a global presentation of imprisonment, these problems manifest more in developing countries such as Kenya.
Because imprisonment is indispensable, there is a need for improvement to ensure it attains its mandates. In Kenya, for instance, among other strategies, the judiciary should ensure that the poor -petty crimes convicts are awarded community-based punishments to avoid contamination by hard-core convicts. The Kenyan government should also improve the capability of prison institutions in terms of capacity building and funding to ensure that they have what it takes to reform and rehabilitate convicts.
Biography:
Dr John Onyango Omboto (PhD), a Security and Correction Science Lecturer at Kenyatta University-Kenya, is a University of Nairobi trained Criminologist Crime and Offender Rehabilitation expert. He holds a PhD and Master of Arts Degrees in Criminology and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Public Administration, all from the University of Nairobi. Dr Omboto served Kenya Prisons Service as a senior officer for over a decade before venturing into full-time university teaching. Besides Kenyatta University, he has taught Criminology, Security Management and Sociology courses at the University of Nairobi, Egerton University, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Mount Kenya University, and Chuka University.
At Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, he served as the Head of the Criminology and Security Management Department. At Egerton University, Dr. Omboto taught at the Nairobi City Campus, Njoro Campus and in Juba, South Sudan. He was also the academic leader of the MA Security Management Programme. In addition to teaching and other responsibilities at Kenyatta University, Dr. Omboto was among the experts contracted in the year 2019 to develop training curricula and modules for Rwanda Correctional Service staff. He was part of a seven-member team that launched the training in Kigali at the request of the Rwandan Government.
Dr Onyango Omboto has a special interest in Criminology and Security Studies. In these broad areas, he has published several papers in peer reviewed journals. In addition, he has developed numerous learning modules for different universities in Kenya, as well as the supervision and examination of MA and PhD dissertations. He has published three books: ‘Challenges Facing the Control of Drugs and Substance Abuse in Prisons: ISBN 978-3-659-46266-5, ‘Readings in Criminology and Security Studies: ISBN 978-9966-814-69-2, and ‘Themes on Crime and Criminal Justice’: ISBN 978-9914-49-067-1. He is also a reviewer with the Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice - a British-based Emerald Publication, and Open Journal of Social Sciences- a Scientific Research Publishing. John is a member of the Professional Criminologists Association of Kenya (PCAK), Criminological Society of Africa (CRIMSA), Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) and Western Society of Criminology (WSC).
Article link: https://journalspress.com/LJRHSS_Volume23/Curse-or-Blessing-in-Reformati
on-of-Convicts-An-analysis-of-Imprisonment-as-a-form-of-Punishment.pdf
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