The on-going National
Conference has adopted some far-reaching resolutions that if implemented would go a long way to address some of the problems weighing the country down.
From the recommendation of death penalty for the rape of minors; life jail for rape of women; imprisonment for corrupt judges and many more,  initial fears that the conference was a charade and waste of time is being dispelled.
No doubt, every sector of the country needs attention, particularly the prison  sector which has equally been deliberated upon by the conference.
According to the recommendation of the committee on Law Human Rights and Legal Reforms, there should be total reform of the prisons in the country which includes that pregnant women or nursing mothers should be allowed to deliver and nurse their babies for two years before serving their sentences in prison.
A regular visitor to Nigerian prisons will appreciate the importance of this resolution.  In almost all the female prisons, the number of pregnant women and nursing mothers is over whelming and the number tends to soar with every visit.  Some of these women who probably came to the prison at the early stages of their pregnancies are made to carry their full pregnancy term in prison and have their babies born and nursed in prison yard meant for common criminals.
One had often considered what the authorities thought of the rights of these innocent children, being incarcerated along with their mothers.  Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that all government shall  recognize that every child has the inherent right to life and shall ensure the survival and development of the child. Sections 4, 14 and 17 of the Child’s Right Act 2003 provide for the child’s right to survival and development, to parental care, and for the right of the unborn to protection against harm respectively.
It therefore goes without saying that there is no way the protection of a child’s life will be guaranteed in a prison, moreso in Nigerian prison.  Prisons all over the world are set up by law to provide restraint and custody of individuals accused or convicted for crime by the state.  Like many others, Nigerian Prison Service is charged with the responsibility of reforming prison inmates, 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 in general.
Incidentally, Nigerian Prisons cannot be said to have met all these objectives.  It has been observed that prisons in Nigeria are incomparable to the ones in many other countries.  Instead of reforming inmates, Nigerian 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 noted that while prisoners in countries like UK are treated with dignity, awaiting trial inmates in Nigerian prisons 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 others.  In 2012, members of the Senate Committee on Interior who embarked on a tour of prisons 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… many of the cells meant to accommodate about 150 inmates, all cramped together.’’
Records also show that most of these cells are over crowded by Awaiting Trial-Inmates(ATM). A recent report by a national daily puts the figure of ATMs in prison in the country at 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 are over stretched. This explains why some Nigerians serving various jail terms with the United Kingdom, rejected the recent plan to have them returned to the country to complete their terms in accordance with last year’s Prison Transfer Agreement(PTA) between Nigeria and UK.
It is therefore advisable that the National Conference should not only recommend better conditions for pregnant inmates and nursing mothers, but push for complete reformation of our prisons. The conference should persuade government to upgrade the facilities in our prisons. Nigerian prisons have to be decongested to make them habitable for offenders. To achieve this, criminal justice system should speed up the prosecution of inmates so as to minimize the number of inmates on awaiting trial. A situation in which criminal prosecutions take eternity to conclude should be discouraged. The authorities should adopts alternatives to imprisonment like community sentencing, supervision and others.
Most importantly, prisoner’s rights in its totality should be championed. Prisoners should have the right to access medical facilities, right to decent food, right to good living conditions and 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.

Calista Ezeaku