Effectiveness of Domestic Electrical Installations Skills for Socio-Economic Empowerment of Inmates in Correctional Centres in Rivers State

Abstract

The study examines the effectiveness of domestic electrical installation skills for socio-economic empowerment of inmates in correctional centers in Rivers State. Three research questions guided the study while three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study was conducted in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 1,039 convicted inmates and 106 instructors of vocational training programmes in Nigerian Correctional Centres in Rivers State. The sample for the study consisted of 373 respondents. This was made up of 289 convicted inmates and 84 instructors from the three Nigerian Correctional Centres in Rivers State. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the selection of convicted inmates and instructors from the correctional centres. The sample size for both convicted inmates and instructors was determined using Taro Yamane’s formula. The instrument for the study which was validated by three experts, was a self-structured questionnaire titled Effectiveness of Domestic Electrical Installation Skills for Socio-Economic Empowerment of Inmates Questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was 0.82 using test retest method. The responses were analysed with mean and standard deviation, while z-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that cable jointing skills, conduit wiring skills and cable trunking skills are effective for socio-economic empowerment of inmates in correctional centres in Rivers State. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others that the Ministry of Interior should equip correctional centers with modern electrical installation and maintenance works equipment, for this will enable inmates to acquire the relevant skills that will enhance their socioeconomic empowerment upon discharge.