Parental Distress and Family Reunification among Incarcerated Women in Kenya

Parental Distress and Family Reunification among Incarcerated Women in Kenya

Violet Nekesa Simiyu – The Catholic University of Eastern Africa,
Paul Norvy – The Catholic University of Eastern Africa and
Teresia Ndilu Mutavi – University of Nairobi
Corresponding author: nekesaviolet2013@gmail.com

Abstract: Women face difficulties adapting back into their families after incarceration. Gender-responsive programs build an atmosphere that provides a sense of the realities of women’s lives and discusses women’s issues. The study sought to determine whether rehabilitation programs address parenting distress and family reunification of incarcerated women. Adopting a cross-sectional descriptive research design the study sampled 384 women offenders and 5 officers in charge of the selected women prisons in Kenya. Also included were representatives from NGOs and FBOs partnering with Kenya prions in rehabilitating women offenders and director rehabilitation service in Kenya prisons. The data was obtained using selfadministered questionnaires. The study also utilized a simple random sampling technique to select respondents for the study and a purposive sampling design to sample the number of women prisons and the key informants. Based on the stress level categories on parental scale index by Abidin (1995), the study findings affirmed that incarcerated women in Kenya prisons suffer from parental distress. This was indicated by a cumulative mean of 42.69. The assumption of the PSI scale is that typical parental stress among incarcerated mothers is between 15- 80. The reintegration of incarcerated women is marred with challenges such as stigma, loneliness, unemployment, broken marriage/relationship, rejection from family and/or children, financial constraints, drugs/substance abuse etc. These challenges increase the chances of recidivism among justreleased incarcerated women. Therefore the study recommends Kenya prison service to implement gender-informed programs such as parenting and relationship programs, trauma informed programs.