CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PS HOLDS MEETING WITH NEW CSO CHAIRPERSON

By Nicholas Kigondu

State Department for Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr. Salome Beacco has underscored the importance of Community Service Orders (CSO) in the criminal justice system.

Speaking during a meeting with the new Community Service Orders chairperson Lady Justice Margaret Muigai, the PS said the programme has proved effective in ongoing efforts to stem overcrowding in the country’s correctional facilities.

According to the PS, the programme that has seen sentences for offenders reviewed, and where appropriate, convicts released to perform community service instead of serving time in custody, has acted to promote the reformation of offenders besides reducing cases of recidivism.

She pledged more collaboration among the different sector players in the spirit of the whole of government approach even as she called for better coordination of the decongestion programme.

“There is need to be more organised as our budgets are finite. We need to interrogate when decongestion exercises are to take place,” said the PS.

While expressing her commitment to the community service orders cause, Lady Justice Margaret Muigai said she will work closely with all stakeholders including county and national government administrations to ensure success of the programme.

The Community Service Orders programme has proved effective in reducing costs to the criminal justice system, reparation and rehabilitation and complimented ongoing efforts by the state department to transform the correctional system into one that reflects the highest standards of justice and human dignity.

The department is utilizing the services of some of the offenders released through community service orders to green the country in an effort to actualize President Willam Ruto’s green ambition of the country planting 15 billion trees by 2032.