An Examination Of Drugs And Substance Abuse In Kamiti Prison, Kenya

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main purpose of the study was to investigate drugs and substance abuse in Kamiti GK prison. The specific objectives of the study were; to investigate the cause of drug and substance abuse in Kamiti GK prison, to examine the effects of drugs in Kamiti GK prison and to come up with solution of this problem in Kamiti GK prison. The study will be of significance to criminal justice system in Kenya that is the police, courts and prison through provision of insights on the nature and scope of drug abuse menace hence help in addressing the problem of drug abuse in Kenyan GK prisons. The study findings will also help the government to put in place policies and programmes in the prison system to help in rehabilitation of inmates that have been affected by drug abuse. The study findings will further provide pool of knowledge on causes, effects and solution for further researches which might be undertaken in the same field. The study utilized descriptive research design where questionnaire was the main instrument used to collect data and the sample size was 40 respondents. From the study findings, it was revealed that drug abuse was prominent in prison and the drug that was mostly abused was Bhang which was normally abused during free hours. The study findings revealed that, holding spread of drug abuse to a constant zero, its spread would be -0.61 (minimal). A unit decrease in causes of drug abuse would lead to decrease in spread of drug abuse spread by a factor of 0.483. A unit increase in address of effects of drug abuse would lead to decrease in spread of drug abuse by a factor of 0.994. On the other hand, a unit increase in positive solution to drug abuse would lead to decrease in spread of drug abuse by a factor of 0.522. Further the influence of causes of drug abuse, effects of drug abuses and solution to drug abuse to spread of drug abuse is statistically high as it is reflected by significance level which is less than 0.05. The study recommends that there is need for increased funding in GK prisons in order to cater for effective rehabilitation efforts for drug abusers. The study further argue that professional counsellors involvement would be paramount in help the drug addicts through counselling as they understand well human behaviours and how to mould the positive one and discontinue the negative ones.