Can Prisons Work? The Challenges & Making Them Work.

Can Prisons Work? The Challenges & Making Them Work.

  

Introduction

The Oxford Advanced Learner dictionary of English describes; “Prison as a building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime they have committed, or while they are waiting for trail”. The same dictionary explains that Confinement means, “The state of being forced to stay in a closed space, prison etc”.  Similarly, a prison or jail, according to Wikipedia is a facility in which individuals are forcibly confined and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state as a form of punishment.

Deductively, the most common use of prison is as part of a criminal justice system, in which individuals officially charged with or convicted of crimes are confined to jail until they are either brought to trial to determine their guilt or complete the period of incarceration they were sentenced to after being found guilty at their trial. Ndukwe C. (Mrs) PhD (2014) concluded that a prison is an institution design to securely house people who have been convicted, or are on awaiting trial.

Historical Background of Nigerian Prisons

Historically, Imprisonment as a type of punishment for crime had been determined by economic and political relationship, rather than by the public police. In early English and German law, a system of adjusting wrongs and injuries existed whereby, the offender was able to buy off the vengeance against him and his kin by compensation, fines, mutilation, banishment, enslavement and death and so, long term imprisonment was virtually unknown until modern times.  Imprisonment as a form of punishment of offenders was known in different ways to many pre-colonial communities in Africa. In Nigeria for instance, there were traditional institutions that served as prisons before British rule, like the Ewedo of Edo group and Ogboni of Yoruba, and many others in the pre-colonial Nigeria (Aboki, 2007).  

The origin of modern prison in Nigeria dates back to 1861 when Lagos was made the crown colony by the British colonialists. The noble goal of the prison services is to reform those who pass through the prison gates and to protect the society from convicted felons. Many prisons have been established before and after independence in Nigeria. The prison has the duty to keep in safe custody persons legally sentenced to jail and identify the causes of their inherent anti-social behaviour, treat and reform them to become law-abiding citizens. The prison also has the responsibility to train inmates in trades that will make them useful to themselves and the society.  The decree 9 of 1972 Prison Act stipulated the importance of welfare division to the prisoners, as it was to see to inmates’ treatment, training and rehabilitation. It also oversees the medical needs of the prisons in addition to liaising between the prison and voluntary and humanitarian organizations that assist in the treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners. The division also sees to the maintenance of proper environment in the prisons through the environmental health section by fumigation of cells, provision of portable water, maintenance of sewage systems and general environmental orderliness. These are complemented by skills acquisition programmes in various vocations like carpentry, tailoring, painting, building and so on, in the course of serving their terms of imprisonment. (Ndukwe C. (Mrs) PhD, Nwuzor 2014)

Present Situation of Nigerian Prisons

The essence of this article is to examine extensively; the present situation of Nigerian prisons which are in a deplorable state to say the least, due to continuous overcrowding which has overstretched the already decrepit and dilapidated infrastructural facilities occasioned by pervasive neglect. The prisons were originally supposed to serve as correctional facilities with the aim of helping convicted prisoners and Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs) in their eventual rejuvenation, rehabilitation and reintegration with the larger society upon the expiration of their sentence. The obvious truth is that Nigerian Prisons have completely deviated from that responsibility; they have only helped to harden inmates and negative influenced them because of the harsh and hostile condition of things in those confined places.

The challenges are enormous; they range from the overcrowding of prisons usually caused by the excessive and exploitative prolongation of cases in the law courts, swapping convicted criminals with innocent persons, pervasive neglect,  monumental corruption which results into the embezzlement of funds meant for the general wellbeing of prisons and prisoners amongst other malfeasances perpetrated by so-called public officials entrusted with the noble responsible of making our society a safe and serene environment for habitation and business growth by keeping the bad guys locked away.

The Challenges

·        Overcrowding (mostly ATPs) - A report by Amnesty International reveals that more than three of every five prison inmates in Nigeria have not been convicted of any offence; instead, they wait for  years for trial in appalling conditions. This fact was corroborated by the past Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), Mr. Olusola Ogundipe. He stated that pretrial detainees now constitute about 80% of the prison population. Most of them, according to him, are held for minor offences, for which bail is available. He added that for many of the detainees, there are no case files.

The NPS has been riddled with the ever increasing number of Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs) which, according to report, is put at 30,000 persons, representing over 65% of the estimated prisoners population of 46,000. As in virtually all the prisons in the state, the challenge of awaiting trial persons is one too many. From Ikoyi prison through Kirikiri to Badagry prisons, the challenge has been the same. It has not only overstretched the facilities to breaking point, it is also a contributing factor to prison breaks nationwide. For instance, from genuine cases of major crimes to minor misdemeanours such as of petty theft and environmental issues, the number of persons awaiting trial at the Lagos prisons alone is indeed astronomical.

·        Infrastructural Dilapidation caused by Pervasive Neglect- The present situation of Nigeria prisons is a sad reminder of what is obtainable in the country as a whole. Successive administrations have failed the Nigerian state and her people in all the ramifications for judging governmental functionality. Most of these confinement places were built before independence and since then, there has been no visible effort by the government to ensure the renovation of these structures so that they can serve the purpose for which they were built – Reformation and Correction of Inmates.

Members of the Senate Committee on Interior, who embarked on a tour of prisons in the country, were shocked by what they saw as they decried the dilapidation of the prisons, concluding they were no longer fit for human habitation. In its annual report to the Senate, The committee said that “a majority of the cells leak during the rains and the perimeter walls and some cells have, in some cases, collapsed.”

·        Monumental Corruption - I would not be exaggerating if I state that our dear country is synonymous with corruption. This ugly breast has bitten the country in all spheres of our economic life. It is evident that the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government are not left out of this avalanche.  Some monies meant to better the lot of convicted felons serving out different jail terms are never allowed to be used for that purpose and it is not longer news that some innocent persons are exchanged for convicted criminals and court cases are intentionally elongated to ensure that justice is delayed or never served. The administration of justice in such partial circumstances contributes to the reasons why our prisons are in such laudable states.

The Way Forward

The Nigeria Prison Service has the sole responsibility of providing the necessary infrastructural facilities to inmate during their period of trail or/and incarceration. However, the government Parastatal cannot and should not be allowed to do it alone. The Nigeria Police and the Judiciary in all levels of government is responsible for the administration and dispensation of justice in the country. This means that they have different roles to play to ensure that elongation of trails which is one of the reasons for overcrowding of our prisons is sincerely addressed.

The Federal Government needs to ensure that structures are put in place to ensure speedy trails of suspected persons and the total overhaul of all the prisons across the country, The centre government may move prison management from the exclusive list so that state governments would be allowed to manage the prisons in their domain without any form of hindrance.

Conclusively, the new government promised change and this is one avenue we are impatiently waiting to witness positive change.

God Bless Nigeria

Olusanya Oluwole Sheriff