It is punishment not rehabilitation in our prisons

Nyau wakes up every day at 4am frightened by repeated flashbacks of traumatic events of that early Monday morning of 1999 when cops knocked on his door and took him never to return home for 6 months.

This bright boy from Bondeni slums whose shining star was dimmed a few years earlier when he dropped out of Egerton University for lack of fees was in for another rude shock. He now found himself in Nakuru remand prison, sleeping side by side with Kenya’s hardened criminals.

Today Nyau Ogutu Fahad spends most of his time educating the youth in low-income areas of Nakuru town on living a crime-free life. This is his way of fighting back the psychological trauma that has tormented him for 16 years since he left prison gates. He says he was jailed for a crime he never committed harbors no bitterness.

The prison experience is neither normal nor natural, and constitutes one of the more degrading experiences a person can endure. Prolonged adaptation to the deprivations and frustrations of prison life commonly, referred to as the "pains of imprisonment" carries a certain psychological cost.

This ongoing climate of trauma can create anxiety, depression, phobias, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in prisoners who previously had no serious mental health issues.

Nyau is just one of the thousands of cases of prisoners who develop PTSD in prison that goes on to haunt and torment them for years after getting their freedom, leaving them with debilitating impacts on their physical health and psychological well-being.

Nyau had to fight stigma and pressure from peers to come out and speak openly about his prison experience by documenting it into a book Jela Chronicles.

 “When I saw young people from my hood engaging in stuff that could see them go to jail for life, I had to do something” said Nyau. “These kids don’t understand what it means to be incarcerated”

Jela Chronicles was written in Swahili, English and Sheng to reach every youth who may be tempted to get into a life of crime. Nyau promotes his book on social media and through talks to schools and the community. Today his mantra is “freedom is just a word until you lose it”.

Although there has been a lot of transformation at the Kenya Prisons since 2008, many years after Nyau left, according to World Prison Brief, Kenya has a prison population of approx. 57,000 with an occupancy rate of 202%.

Kenya Prison website put the uniformed staff at 17,943 strong in 108 facilities countrywide, meaning that congestion and understaffing is still a problem.

Most prisoners are ultimately released, and the psychological problems they develop in prison (that never was properly addressed) can increase their risk of re-offending and make it harder to reintegrate in the society as a productive, law abiding citizen.

Up to 70% of people who have been incarcerated are arrested again within three years, and the dire state of mental health care in prisons plays a significant role in this high rate of re-offending.

Our prisons do not have capacity to deal with mental health illness for both the prisoners and the Warders. Only serious problems and HIV/AIDS receive some little attention but people with anxiety issues, depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions that don’t cause radical changes in behavior rarely get treated. 

There are suicide attempts that Nyau observed while in prison. However, rather than take such people for psychiatric treatment, these people are punished due to our misunderstanding of what suicide truly is – a symptom of a serious underlying mental illness.

However, in our prisons, inmates are not the only ones suffering from mental health neglect. Whereas our society occasionally talks about prisoners’ welfare, not much is heard about problems being faced by the prison staff.

Prison warders suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at more than double the rate of military veterans, according to a US study. The found that 34% of corrections officers suffer from PTSD. This compares to 14% of military veterans.

World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for training on mental health for prison staff at all levels. It states that such training increases awareness of the mental disorders, makes the staff adhere to human rights, reduces suicidal attempts by inmates, and helps the prison staff to get over stigmatizing attitudes.

This becomes a catalyst for improved mental health of both staff and inmates. If we want prisoners treated well, their handlers must be equipped with the capacity to do their work satisfactorily.

This includes providing regular psychological trauma debriefing for warders and psychosocial support to the prisoners. Prisoners’ welfare and warders’ welfare are not mutually exclusive.

Let us build the mental health capacity of our correction and rehabilitation facilities if prisons will truly serve as a rehabilitation and not punishment facility.

As a society, we should not stigmatize those who come from prison as most of them reform and become responsible citizens. They need our support to reintegrate back into the society as they recover from the “psychological cost” of being incarcerated, hopefully with the support of a counselor.

We have counselors at PDO who can assist with that recovery and will soon launch a free mobile mental health App that offer psychological support to those recovering from their incarceration ordeal.

The Author is the Founder/CEO of Psychiatric Disability Organization, which campaigns for compassion and support to people suffering mental illnesses. He can be reached on:  [email protected] Website: http://www.pdokenya.org/