Prisoners using poetry to impact life and change behaviour

Embu Maximum Security Prison now offers poetry and performance arts to inmates – activities that are aimed at aiding behavior change amongst inmates.

Introduced three months ago by a volunteer, the weekly poetry sessions have piqued the interest of many inmates with 26 individuals signing up for the class.

The inmates say the introduction of such activities in the facility has had a very positive impact on their lives.

Sospeter Ndwiga, one of the inmates serving life sentence, says his life has been completely transformed following the introduction of the classes since the theme of most poems are centered around behaviour change, personal development and  spiritual growth.

Peter Karega, the initiator of the poetry classes, says the stigma the inmates face they are released inspired him to start the program.

Karega noted that most prisons have vocational training such as carpentry and farming, but there are no classes on how prisoners should behave once they are out of jail.

Karega said that with stigma, some of them go to an extent of committing crime so that they can be taken back to jail.

He called on the government to introduce such curriculum in all correctional facilities in the country.