The Iron Cage

This study was an attempt to establish the effects of imprisonment on inmates in Kenya. These effects were classified into five groups: Social Economic Psychological Physical and Health effects. The study was conducted at two prisons; Industrial Area Remand and Lang’ata Women’s prisons. This research was grounded on the assumptions of the classical theory of punishment that states that crime is a rational behaviour that individuals enter into knowing all the consequences of their action. This involves a cost benefit analysis; pleasure versus pain. The choice is directed towards the maximization of pleasure. On the other hand the rehabilitation model asserts that these choices are not a matter of free will but are influenced by an individual’s personal surrounding psychological make-up and biological composition. This study was descriptive in design and used both probability and non-probability sampling procedures. The respondents under study were 58 in number; 34 males and 24 females. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used in this study.