Factors affecting Rehabilitation of Child Offenders in Kimumu Boys’ Probation Hostel, Eldoret City, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Child-related crimes have become common in the current society. As a response, governments have established rehabilitation centers to reform child offenders and bring them back to societal expectations. However, in Kenya, some child offenders released from probation hostels after completion of the rehabilitation process tend to continue with delinquent behavior and some get back to probation hostels again. Therefore, the study examined the factors that influence the rehabilitation of child offenders at Kimumu boys’ probation hostel in Eldoret City. The specific objectives of the study were to; examine operational policy factors affecting the rehabilitation of child offenders, assess the institutional factors affecting the rehabilitation of child offenders, and evaluate staff-related factors affecting the rehabilitation of child offenders in Kimumu Boys Probation Hostel. The research was premised on relapse prevention theory, which gave a thorough and holistic explanation on the change of behavior in the rehabilitation process. A mixed method research design was utilized, and a census sampling technique was used to select the 44 participants into the sample whilst purposive sampling procedure was used to select 11 key informants. The methods of data collection adopted were interview and key informant interview. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze qualitative data, while descriptive data analysis techniques were used to examine quantitative data. The study established that policies governing the conduct of staff and child offenders are rigid (77%), existing policies have hindered the rehabilitation process (86%), there are issues (56%) that policy issues with child admission and rehabilitation policies affect child offenders’ rehabilitation (56%). The study also revealed that inadequate teaching and training equipment (64%) negatively affects the rehabilitation process. In addition, the study revealed that the staff at the hostel are well-equipped to handle the rehabilitation of child offenders (67%) and that staff in the study institution have a positive attitude (79%) towards rehabilitated child offenders. The study concludes that rigid and inflexible policies are the main obstacle to the customization of rehabilitation programs to the individual needs of child offenders. The study also concludes that the condition of the facilities, the amount of equipment, and the funding levels are the key factors that influence the rehabilitation process. In addition, the study concludes that the success of the rehabilitation programs is mostly based on the staff's adequacy, their attitudes toward offenders, and the stability of their positions. The study recommended rehabilitation programs to be more customized to the unique needs of child offenders by probation hostels carrying out a thorough review and revision of the existing policies.