Nairobi — The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is said to have described jails as places where one should not expect to find enjoyment. He was then vice president and minister for home affairs.

Unfortunately for the doyen of opposition politics, he was later to find himself in detention where, one must presume, he did not expect to enjoy heightened levels of comfort.

If he were living today, he would probably see a lot of sense in what the current vice president and minister for Home Affairs, Moody Awori, is doing for the prisons.

As minister in charge of prisons, Awori has undertaken ambitious reforms to make jails comfortable. He has introduced TV sets, he has heard out prisoners complaining about the horrid conditions of jails and promised to address their problems. On Monday, he promised them swimming pools, a promise that his Press service later denied he made. Now, he plans to allow prisoners visitation rights by their spouses so that they can enjoy their conjugal rights.

The bit about swimming pools, some people may feel is benevolence extended to absurd limits. The one on conjugal rights is quite ambitious. Let's examine the issues.

One of the most common complaints about our jail system is that it turns prisoners into animals. It hardens them and teaches them that the worst that can ever happen to them has already happened in jail. When they come out they are full of bile; they are anti-society; and they do not fear going back to jail. When you have been to hell and back, one more trip would be nothing to fear about.

Prisons are supposed to be correctional facilities. This purpose would be best served in situations where the human rights of the prisoners are taken into consideration within the entire jail system. Prisoners should be continually reminded of what they are missing in captivity. One of the ways of doing this is by denying them what they would easily get in freedom. The other way is by allowing them to have snapshots and tantalising tastes, in carefully rationed quantities, of the life of the free. Awori has chosen the later.

Yet, there must be a sneaking feeling somewhere that our jails are being made too comfortable for people who are essentially criminals. That is true. But it is also true that criminals are still human beings even though they have been condemned. They have families out there and, for those who are married, they have women and men who, because of the sins of their spouses have been condemned to deprivation of their conjugal rights. When the husbands eat soar grapes, the wives teeth should not be put on edge and vice versa.

Deprivation of some rights bring out the worst in people. For instance, homosexuality is said to be on the rise in prisons. It could be that Awori's bit of reform would lessen it. As for the unmarried who have all the pent-up sexual energy and who should be allowed some ventilation, well? Should they ideally be having sex anyway?

Awori's measures may be good. But at the rate he is going, he risks making our prisons far too. He must not lose sight of the fact that there should be an element of punishment much as the prisons are correctional institutions.

How many of the high-class hotels, one might ask, have swimming pools? Let prisons be comfortable but let them forever remain places where prisoners are compelled to interrogate their lives more seriously in a situation where they are also allowed to be human.