Government Appeals for 60,000 Beds for Prisoners

The State Department for Correctional Services is appealing for 60,000 beds and mattresses in a bid to address the biting shortage in prisons.

The department is set to launch an ambitious campaign dubbed ‘one prisoner, one bed, one mattress‘ across all prisons.

Principal Secretary in charge of correctional services, Mary Muthoni said the campaign will seek to transform the department’s operations to an institution that reforms inmates.

“When somebody is sentenced and is contained in those four walls, you must realize that is the biggest punishment that you can ever give a human being. Our mandate is to correct,” Muthoni said.

“We do not want people sleeping on the floor anymore in this country. If you want to change the world, go back and make your bed,” she said.

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According to Muthoni, the department will empower prison-run workshops to make some of the beds but called for donations to bridge the gap.

“We are making our beds and as the Correctional Services Department. How will you even ask them (inmates) to stitch when their ribs are paining because of sleeping on the floor?” the PS posed.

The PS added that the department is keen on providing care and dignified services to inmates to realize the mandate to correct as opposed to punishing them.

She said the department has received 1,000 mattresses against a target of 60,000 needed across the country.