Effectiveness of Community Service Orders on Ex-Offenders Social Re-Integration in Keiyo North Sub-County, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya

Abstract

This research aimed at finding out the effectiveness of Community Service Orders on ex-offender’s social re- integration in Keiyo North Sub- County, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. The research design was descriptive

cross-sectional.The respondents included in the study were ex-offenders serving Community Service Order after benefitting from prison decongestion exercise. A sample size of 63 respondents was drawn from a total population of 190 respondents using sample size formula provided by Yamane (1967). Thereafter, simple random sampling was applied to select the 63 individuals to be included in the study from the target population of 190 using the lottery method.Structured questionnaires were used to collect data.Validity of the research instrument was maintained by providing operational definition of terms and describing the meaning of the independent and dependent variables in accordance with the purpose of the study. Content validity was observed by submitting the questionnaires to the supervisors for quality check ensuring the results of the study are relevant with reviews of literature. Reliability of the research instrument was achieved by conducting a pilot study at Eldoret Probation station using 10% of the sample size of respondents. This was followed by a revamp of the questionnaires in terms of wording, design, categorization and ensuring validity of the questions before the final draft of questionnaires was supplied.The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of SPSS version 25 and presented in form of tables. The findings indicated that Community Service Orders had a positive and significant relationship on 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 Community Service Order need to play their active role, the government should also consider

conducting regular prison decongestion exercises since ex-offenders who benefit to serve Community Service Order for the remainder of their sentences have been shown to re-integrate back to the community successfully. In future, there is need to understand how other forms of supervised non-custodial sentences apart from Community Service Order are effective on ex-offenders social re-integration.