Vocational Education and Training Perception on Integration of Prisoners into the Society

This study sought to evaluate Vocational Education and Training (VET) perception on integration of prisoners back into the society. The study was undertaken in Mombasa County with a primary focus drawn to Shimo La Tewa main prison and Shimo La Tewa Medium Security Prison. Questionnaire instruments were used for data collection. Different questionnaires were administered to different response groups. The groups included the prison administrators, the trainers, trainees and ex-prisoners. Sample selection method was majorly purposive for all groups except for the trainees who were selected randomly from a pool of those who undertook VET. The information was coded, cleaned and analyzed using the Predictive Analytical Software (PASW). Mixed methods such as qualitative and quantitative techniques were used as the data collected was both qualitative and quantitative. To facilitate the data collection that was qualitative in nature open ended questions were captured in the questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to deduce meaningful information. Regression analysis was done to assess the perception on integration of prisoners into the society. The model was found to be statistically significant (and the degree of linear relationship while the total amount of variation explained by perception was significant. Other perceptions deduced to impact on integration back into the society, societal point of view on the released persons, the prison administration point of view on the role of VET for inmates in prison and finally, the perception of trainers based in remunerative impact of VET on them. The research recommends that an orientation programme on importance of VET be conducted for prisoners before they can make choices on the types of courses that they wish to undertake, civic education for the society should be done for it is an integral part in ensuring successful re-entry for the prisoners, policies to reduce discrimination against prisoner need to be formulated and enacted, there is need to enhance human resource capital in prisons and finally, material resources to facilitate implementation of VET need to conform with market requirements.