The knotty issue of the reform of Nigerian prisons resonated last week when the Head of the European Union delegation to Nigeria, Ambassador Michel Arrion, asked the incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, “de-radicalise” Boko Haram members held in prisons in order to permanently end insurgency that had ravaged the North-east. The ambassador, who doubles as the head of the EU delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), stated this in Ilorin, Kwara state, during an interaction with newsmen.
Prisons all over the world are set up by law to provide restraint and custody of individuals accused or convicted for crimes by the state. In Nigeria, like every other place, the prison system dates back to the colonial era and is modeled after the British system. It is a system that lays emphasis on punishment and deterrence. The operational powers of the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) are derived from CAP 366 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.
This legal provision charges the prisons, among other things, to take into lawful custody all those certified to be so kept by courts of competent jurisdiction; produce suspects in courts as and when due; identify the causes of anti-social behaviour; set in motion mechanisms for their treatment; train inmates for eventual reintegration into society as normal law abiding citizens on discharge; administer prisons farms and industries for this purpose and in the process generate revenue for the government.
Although Arrion narrowed down his request to the Boko Haram members owing to their viciousness, the failure of the Nigerian prison system to meet the three cardinal universal objectives of reformation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of prison inmates has over the years been a disturbing decimal.
Despite series of reforms instituted by successive governments at correcting the sordid state of Nigerian prisons, the situation seems to have degenerated from bad to worse. The situation is presently so appalling that rather than serve as correctional institutions, our prisons have now become training centres for hardened criminals and recidivists, who, on their discharge, unleash more devious mayhem on the society than the initial cause of their incarceration.
In its recent tour of prisons in the country, the members of the Senate Committee on Interior 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.” The report, signed by the chairman of the committee, Senator Olalekan Mustapha, noted, “In many of the prisons visited, the committee was moved by the plight of the inmates, many of the cells meant to accommodate about 50 inmates were found to accommodate about 150 inmates, all cramped together.”
The dysfunction of Nigerian prisons has been largely attributed to the adversary system of justice which stipulates that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty by the court. This legal principle has given rise to the preponderance of pre-trial inmates or awaiting trial persons, who constitute about 80 per cent of the over 46,000 prison population. Unarguably, the cases of un-convicted felons has overstretched the facilities to breaking point and made managing the prisons difficult. It is also a contributing factor to prison breaks nationwide.
We are, therefore, of the opinion that further attempt to reform the prisons must address the issues of overcrowding, poor staff morale, inadequate funding, need for new rights for prisoners, right to food, clean environment and human dignity and need for other alternatives to imprisonment. We also believe that treatment and rehabilitation of offenders can be achieved through carefully designed and well-articulated administrative, reformative and rehabilitative programmes aimed at inculcating discipline, respect for law and order, and regard for the dignity of honest labour.