Correctional institutions have urged corporate entities and county governments to help reform ex-convicts through livelihoods support programs as a way of preventing them from relapsing back to crime.
Nakuru Women GK Prison officer-in-charge Rosemary Njenga says reformed convicts with a wealth of vocational skills need start-up capital through support programs to help them set up income generating activities that can help them make a descent living.
"At least one third of skilled and rehabilitated convicts go back to crime due to lack of start-up support. This also leads to congestion at most correctional facilities in the country," she observed.
Ms Njenga added that stigma directed at ex convicts makes their re-integration to society a challenge, a move that drives them back to crime.
She said this on Friday at the facility where she received members of staff from Madalali Auctioneers Company who had donated assorted food stuff and personal effects to convicts at the correctional facility.
She called for more concerted efforts from stakeholders to help in reforming ex-convicts by advocating against societal stigma and instead root for more empowerment of the ex-convicts.
She also appealed to the public to buy their wares which she described as of high quality made with utmost precision.
Njenga argues that this is a sustainable pathway to self-reliance and easy re-integration to society among the reformed convicts.
The visitors called on the government to make women prisons habitable to women with babies saying the Nakuru facility posed danger to the health of women convicts and their children.