As They Reject Nigerian Prisons

T

he recent report
about some Nigerians serving various jail terms  with the United Kingdom rejecting  the plan to have them return to the country to complete their terms due to poor prison facilities and stigma once again brings to the fore the appalling conditions of the country’s prisons.

It would be recalled that Nigeria and UK in December 2013 signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) which will make  it possible  for prisoners to return home and complete their terms.

Prisons all over the world are set up by law to provide restraint and custody of individuals acused or convicted for crime by the state. Like many others, Nigerian Prison Service is charged with the responsibility of reforming prison  inmate, and also protect the society from convicted fellows. It also has a duty to keep in safe custody persons legally sentenced to jail and identify the causes of their inherent anti-social behavior, treat  and reform them to become law abiding citizens. The prison has also the responsibility to train inmates  in trades that will make them useful to themselves and society  at in general.

Incidentally, Nigerian Prisons cannot be said to have  met all these objectives. Many have observed  that prisons in Nigeria are incomparable to the ones in many other countries. Instead of reforming inmates, Nigeria prison system is said to be hardening  them and subjecting them to horrible, degrading conditions and punishments sometimes  exceeding  the crimes  committed, in the process, rendering inmates physically and psychologically damaged, unwanted, unloved and abandoned in an uncaring environment.

Some have also noted that while prisoners in countries like UK are treated  with dignity, awaiting trial inmates in prisons in Nigeria are subjected to inhumane  treatment and convicted prisoners denied of their fundamental  rights.

Most of these prisons  are characterized by over crowding,  poor living conditions, inadequate facilities, poor staff morale, poor  funding and many  other.  In 2012  Members of the Senate Committee on intrrior who embarked on a tour of prison in the country were shocked by what they saw. They decried the dilapidation of the prisons, saying that they were no longer fit for human habitation. In its annual report to the senate the committee said, “a majority of the cells leak during the rains and the perimeter cases, collapsed … many of the cells meant to accommodate about  50 inmates were found to accommodate  about 150 inmates, all cramped together.”

Records also show that most of these cells are over crowded by Awaiting Trial-Inmates (ATMs) A recent report by ThisDay Newspaper  puts the figure of ATMs prisons in Nigeria to 34,328.

Our  constitution stipulates that “a person shall be tried within  two months  from the date of his detention”. This is hardly so as some people have been on detention for years without trial. The result is that the scantly available  facilities and fund are over stretched.

Unfortunately, no serious attempt has been seen to be made by successive government to improve plights of detainees  and other  inmates in the nation’s prison.

It is therefore imperative that for the PTA between our country and other countries to work, government  should upgrade the facilities in our prisons. Our prisons have to be decongested  to made habitable for offenders. To achieve this, criminal justice system should speed up the prosecution of inmates so as minimize the number of inmate on awaiting trial. A situation in which criminal prosecutions take eternity to conclude should also be discouraged. The authorities adopting alternatives to imprisonment like community sentencing, supervision and others.

Most importantly prisons rights in its totality should be championed.  Prisoners should have right to access to medical facilities, right to decent food, right to good living conditions, and many others. A situation where inmates take turns to sleep on the bare floor should be totally discouraged. Their human dignity should not be denied them.

There is urgent  need for a massive overhaul to transform prisons in the country to correctional facilities which they are really meant to be.

Perhaps  when all these are done, when those in authority  are ready to spend  more money on the prisons reform agenda and re-integration programme, Nigerians in foreign  prisns many consider coming back home to carry out their sentences.

There is also need for Nigerians travelling to other countries to be educated on the laws of  those nations  and the need for them to abide by them. As the chairman of the House Committee in Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa stated after the committee’s visit to south Africa prisons recently, “the increasing  number of our country men in foreign prisons is ridiculously embarrassing. There must be a way to interact with Nigerians in Diaspora and  continuously advise them to stay away from crime?

Calista Ezeaku