We have experienced great successes in improving access to rehabilitation and reintegration in East Africa.
Between 2011 and 2016 we worked on a project to decrease imprisonment through promoting community-based sentencing and strengthening professional and public support for alternatives to detention. We hoped to offer sentenced people relevant skills for reintegration though community service as well as provide continued rehabilitation support.
We work to make criminal justice systems gender-responsive. In Kenya, we worked with the probation service to develop community service which allows women to serve their sentences whilst keeping their families together and working part-time to earn an income. This project developed guidelines to assist probation officers in providing pre-sentence reports which helped courts to consider relevant and specific needs of women when deciding on an appropriate sentence.
Our work on ending the death penalty in East Africa has centred upon policy and legal reform. We influenced the Sentencing Guidelines in Kenya (2016) and the Law Revision Penalties in Criminal Matters Miscellaneous Amendment Act in Uganda (2019). Both reforms have helped to reduce sentences of death.