EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE ORDERS ON EX-OFFENDERS’ SOCIAL RE-INTEGRATION IN KEIYO NORTH SUB-COUNTY, ELGEYO MARAKWET COUNTY, KENYA.

Abstract

Community Service Orders (CSOs) serve to enhance safety in the community by improving relationships between ex-offenders and community members. They have also been verified to be successful in ensuring ex-offenders’ social re-integration by helping them to take responsibility of their deeds and change, provide an opportunity for them to learn new skills, thoughts, and new approaches to deal with problems. However, Community Service Orders have experienced difficulties in ascertaining ex-offenders’ social re-integration. It is in this regard that the current study was designed to determine effectiveness of Community Service Orders on ex-offenders’ social re-integration in Keiyo North Sub-County, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; to examine effectiveness of counselling on social re-integration of ex-offenders serving Community Service Ordersin Keiyo North Sub-County, to determine effectiveness of supervision on social re-integration of ex-offenders serving Community Service Ordersin Keiyo North Sub-County, to assess effectiveness of family support on social re-integration of ex-offenders serving Community Service Orders in Keiyo North Sub-County and to analyse effectiveness of community support on social re-integration of ex-offenders serving Community Service Orders in Keiyo North Sub-County. The theories that informed the study purpose and specific objectives included; The Rehabilitation Theory, Strain Theory and Social Control Theory. In order to effectively achieve these objectives, the study adopted a descriptive and correlational research design with an accessible population of a total of 745 respondents. A sample size of 258 participants was determined using the Yamane formula and stratified random sampling applied to select the ex-offenders, ex-offenders’ families and village elders. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and Focus Group Discussions that were administered by the researcher with the help of two research assistants while secondary data was gathered through document review. Validity was assured by submitting the questionnaires and Focus Group Discussion questions to the supervisors for quality control. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics via the help of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25. The findings indicated that Community Service Orders were effective on ex-offenders’ social re-integration in Keiyo North sub-county, Elgeyo Marakwet county, Kenya. Counselling was effective on ex-offenders’ social re-integration as indicated by an average mean of 3.669 and SD (Standard deviation) of 0.633. This relationship is also evidenced by correlation coefficient(r) of 0.421 which shows that the association between counselling and ex-offenders’ social re-integration is positive, moderate and significant. The study concluded that supervision

of ex-offenders in form of office reporting and home visits was fruitful in ensuring ex- offenders’ social re-integration while insufficiency of resources was noted as a hinderance in

ascertaining ex-offenders’ social re-integration. Family members support was also successful in social re-integration of ex-offenders serving CSO as exemplified by an average [mean =3.63,

SD = 0.770]. However, community support was generally observed as being ineffective on ex- offenders serving CSO social re-integration as shown by an average [mean =2.09, SD=0.713].

Despite this, spiritual and recreational support were gathered to be effective in ex-offenders’ social re-integration. From the findings and conclusions, it was recommended that all relevant stakeholders who contribute to the social re-integration of ex-offenders on CSO need to continue playing their active role, regular counselling training of Community Service Officers

should be adopted, family members need to continue coming on board in support of ex- offenders’ social re-integration while community support should be strengthened. In future,

there is need to understand how other forms of supervised non-custodial sentences apart from CSO are effective on ex-offenders’ social re-integration.