Effectiveness Of Offender Rehabilitation Programmes In Addressing The Psychological Needs Of Women Offenders Within The Prisons In Kenya

Globally, for the past decade there has been continuous growth of body of research on women in prisons with USA setting the pace. The studies have gained insights on female pathways to prison (see Collica-Cox, 2018; Bloom, Owen & Covington, 2005) necessitating the development and implementation of programs that are gender responsive to specific needs of women offenders. Such programs are those that address issues that may hinder rehabilitative success and eventually the reintegration of the women back to the society. Ineffective rehabilitation of women offenders remains one of society’s concerns all over the world today, Kenya included. However, few studies had examined women offenders in Kenya and a little extent the rehabilitation programs that address their psychological needs. The study sought to determine the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs in addressing the psychological needs of the women prisoners in Kenya. The relational rheory of women’s psychological development and the Risk Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model for offender rehabilitation were used to inform the study. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive research design, employing a mixed concurrent triangulation method of data collection. The target population included all convicted women prisoners within the 17 correctional facilities of women prisoners in Kenya with a minimum of class 8 education level. Purposive and simple random nsampling techniques were used to select 350 study participants.