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Question: How effective is our prison system? Introduction: Prison system as an institution is a place where people are kept as s punishment for a crime they have committed, or while they are waiting for trial, for their various crime accused of, it is one of the public institutions in Nigeria charged with the responsibility of providing certain services as programmed by the government aimed at rehabilitating its inmates under the prison custodies across the federation. Sociologically, man is by nature ‘social’ which meant that he can not live alone, he must live in social group in society and interact or interrelate with other persons around him in a number of ways, which is the process of so doing may break either one or a number of formal norms in the society an obligation which he/she is subject to, and this violation is subject for correction immediately to avoid repetition of such act by the same individual and also as a deterrent to others members of the society. When we talk of current issues in contemporary times in Nigeria, we want to imply that there are changes and expectations in the area that are governed by historical antecedents. To talk of contemporary correction means that correction or what came before it have come a very long way. That there has been some great paradigm shifts in the treatment of inmates in Nigeria, Corrections even if the laws do not expressly say so. This is because the sum total of what is done or is supposed to be done in the prisons in Nigeria agrees, at least in principle, with what corrections stand for. Corrections could be defined as the systematic inquiry into the mindset of an offender, for the purpose of finding out the reason for their antisocial behavior and initiating and implementing programs designed to turn them to rectitude. If this definition is taken side by side with the mandate of Nigerian Prisons Service, it will be seen that the NPS is correction oriented. This correction oriented is informed by the realization that except for condemned convicts, every prisoner has a date the he/she will return to the society. Therefore it pays the society to ensure that the condition in which they return is better than the condition in which they went in through positive intervention in custody, making imprisonment punishment and not for punishment. Correction is generally considered the final stage in the criminal justice process some aspect of corrections, however, come into play early in the process. As an aside, it is important to keep in mind, however, that while the term Criminal Justice can be used to refer to the justice process, it can also be used to describe our system of justice. Criminal justice agencies, taken as a whole, are said to compose the Criminal Justice System. As you already probably know, the components of the criminal justice system are the Police, Courts and corrections each component, because it contains a variety of organizations and agencies, can be termed a subsystem. The subsystem of corrections, for example, includes prisons, drug rehabilitation agencies, Borstals, and a variety of alternative programs. Since the activities of criminal justice agencies routinely involve other system components, the word system encompasses not only the agencies of justices, but also the interrelationships among those agencies. The process of criminal justice involves the activities of the agencies that make up the criminal justice system. The process of criminal justice begins when a crime is discovered or reported. As you are already aware, the prison is the last segment of the criminal justice system in Nigeria.

The correction component of criminal justice administration is represented by the Nigerian Prisons Service. The origin of modern prisons service in Nigeria Is 1861. That was the year when conceptually, western –type prison was established in Nigeria. The declaration of Lagos as a colony in 1861 marked the beginning of the institution of formal machinery of governance. At this stage the preoccupation of the colonial government, according to Ahire, was to protect legitimate trade, guarantee the profit of British merchants as well as guarantee the activities of the missionaries at that time. To this end, Mr. McCrosky who was, by 1861, the acting governor of the Lagos colony and who was then a prominent British merchant in Lagos, formed a police force of about 25 constables. This was followed in 1863 by the establishment in Lagos of four courts: a police court to resolve petty disputes, a criminal court to try the more serious cases, a slave court to try cases arising from the efforts to abolish the trade in slaves and a commercial court to resolve disputes among merchants and traders. The functioning of this court and the police in that colonial setting necessarily means that prison was needed to complete the system.

Corrections and National Security

Many officers of the services are often apologetic about the mandate of the service as if they are embarrassed at what we do. Or that they needed to do some explaining about the role of the prisons in National development. Some even went as far as saying that the prisons generates revenue through its farms and industries, ostensibly to promote the relevance of the prisons in the scheme of things in Nigeria Nothing can be more misguided and misleading. The prisons is not meant for revenue generation. It is asocial/security service. At one end, it is the hub of national Security, holding in its bosom, a captive audience whose summary and spontaneous release could topple the state.

At the other end it is an agency that provides another opportunity for those who fall foul of the law to get their acts together again, if in the process of doing that, it generates revenues through the use of prisons farms and industries for the purpose of training inmates, that revenue is incidental to its mandate and not its primary mandate.

As correction officers, these points should be foremost in their minds as they make a case for appreciation, recognition and funding of their organization and programs. The role of corrections is so strategic to National social and economic Development

Prison Conditions in Nigeria________________________________________Prisons remain one of the public institutions in Nigeria that need urgent reform. The call for the reform of the Nigeria prison services is becoming a perennial thing as successive governments have failed to do anything tangible in that direction. Of course, the major problem confronting the Nigeria prison system is congestion caused by persons awaiting trial in prisons across the country.

The figure of awaiting trial persons is rising daily and it is becoming an embarrassment to the nation. For too long, the plights of the prisoners were not properly addressed. The recent disclosure by the Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho (rtd) that Nigeria is faced with the challenge of prison management is correct considering the figure of awaiting trial persons (ATPs) which was put at 30,000, representing over 65 per cent of the estimated prisoners-population of 46,000. Indeed, a large percentage of Nigeria prison inmates have stayed for five to seven years in detention without trial. This upsurge trend is an eye opener, and its portrays the ugly state of our prison services. The condition of the Nigerian prisons is equally begging for attention. Prisons supposed to be rehabilitation centres. It is disheartening that in Nigeria, prisons are death traps. Immates of our prisons are often subjected to in human and degrading treatments, in violation of the human rights provisions enshrined in the nation;s constitution and in line with relevant international conventions and agreements.

Of course, unnecessary delays have become more or less associated with the process of executing the condemned prisoners and this could be blamed on the state governors. Realizing their roles in causing the congestion in the nation’s prisons, the 36 state governors have collectively resolved recently at the national council of state parley to weed out condemned prisoners for execution as a measure to decongest the over-crowded prisons across the country. Abuse or reluctant use of prerogative of mercy by some state governors partly contributes to the congestion in the Nigerian prisons. Meanwhile, where the application of this discretionary power is required, it should be applied liberally. It is against this background that it should be suggested that amnesty should be granted some of the awaiting trial persons who are held in detention for no just cause

More worrisome is the condition of persons awaiting trial in the prisons across the country. It seems authorities that manage the Nigerian prison services lack the culture, wisdom and intellectual wherewithal to put the already decayed prisons in good shape. What a country called Nigeria!

Moreover, the menace of corruption is indeed an obstacle to judicial independence in Nigeria and inability of the judges to uphold the tenets of justice and equity could predictably lead to influx of innocent persons in prisons. Even with sufficient legislation the services of incorruptible judges are required for correct interpretation of laws and sound justice administration.

The continuous rise in the population of the persons awaiting trial in prisons, in a sense, is traceable to ineptitude of the police and its allied agencies and office of the Director of public prosecution in the various states of the Federation; these bodies are constitutionally responsible for propelling prosecution of criminal cases in Nigeria. Also, abuse of the principle of presumption of innocence of an accused person by the police is a correlate of rise in the figure of awaiting trial persons in prisons across the country. In controvertibly, it is trite in law generally and in the Nigeria criminal procedure in particular that every person charged with criminal offence must be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty by court of competent jurisdiction.

It is regretful that some awaiting trial persons are victims of circumstances but then they deserve to be given fair trial within reasonable time; otherwise, it would be a case of human right violation. The use of adjournments is another tool usually employed by some members of the bar to delay justice, thereby causing a person to be committed into prison as awaiting trial inmate.

The implication of the rise in the figure of awaiting trial persons is grievous as this affects the image of nation abroad; hence, the need for total reform of our prison and judicial systems. More importantly, the reform envisaged in this circumstance should be holistic and should extend to the assessment of the roles of police, courts and other related Agencies in causing dilemma for the nation in the areas of management of the prison services and judicial administration. Nigeria's prisons are filled with people whose human rights are systematically violated. Approximately 65 per cent of the inmates are awaiting trial most of whom have been waiting for their trial for years. Most of the people in Nigeria's prisons are too poor to be able to pay lawyers, and only one in seven of those awaiting trial have private legal representation. Although governmental legal aid exists, there are too few legal aid lawyers for all the cases that require representation. Living conditions in the prisons are appalling. They are damaging to the physical and mental well-being of inmates and in many cases constitute clear threats to health. Conditions such as overcrowding, poor sanitation, lack of food and medicines and denial of contact with families and friends fall short of UN standards for the treatment of prisoners. The worst conditions constitute ill-treatment. In many Nigerian prisons inmates sleep two to a bed or on the floor in filthy cells. Toilets are blocked and overflowing or simply nonexistent, and there is no running water. As a result, disease is widespread. Most prisons have small clinics or sick bays which lack medicines, and in many prisons inmates have to pay for their own medicines. Guards frequently demand that inmates pay bribes for such “privileges” as visiting the hospital, receiving visitors, contacting their families and, in some cases, being allowed outside their cells at all. Prisoners with money may be even allowed mobile phones, whereas those without funds can be left languishing in their cells. One inmate said: "If you don't have money, if you come to prison, you will suffer. They collect money from you. It is not right." The Nigerian government has, on numerous occasions, stated its willingness to reform the criminal justice system, acknowledging its role in creating a situation of prolonged detention and overcrowding. Despite many Presidential Commissions and Committees recommending reform of the criminal justice system, these recommendations have not been implemented. Instead, the government has simply set up new committees and commissions to study, review and harmonize the previous recommendations. The reality remains that those in prison stand little chance of their rights being respected. Those who lack money stand even less chance. In July 2007 Amnesty International delegates visited 10 prisons in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Enugu, Lagos and Kano States. The delegates also visited a psychiatric hospital in Enugu State which housed a number of people with mental illnesses who had been transferred there from prison. These locations were chosen to ensure a geographic, ethnic and religious spread across the country. The prisons included a mixture of some of Nigeria's main detention facilities as well as small prisons in rural areas. The delegates conducted interviews with prison directors, medical staff, wardens and around 250 prisoners. These included 55 women; almost 160 prisoners who were awaiting trial; and 37 who had been sentenced to death. In most prisons the delegates spoke to inmates in private and in some they interviewed them through the bars of their cells. The Amnesty International delegates also spoke to state Commissioners of Police, state Attorneys General, judges, magistrates, lawyers, and human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs). At federal level, Amnesty International had meetings with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Legal Aid Council (LAC) and senior representatives of the Nigeria Police Force. Unfortunately, the delegates were not able to meet with the Minister of Interior or the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who had other obligations following their recent appointment. Amnesty International's researchers enjoyed full access to all the prisons they visited, and appreciated the co-operation of the headquarters of the Nigeria Prison Service in preparing for the visit, as well as during the visit itself. Amnesty International regrets that the delegates' meeting with the Comptroller General of Prisons, scheduled several weeks before their visit and confirmed twice, was cancelled only minutes before it was due, because, according to the prison authorities, they required clearance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After leaving Nigeria, Amnesty International shared its findings in writing with the Federal Minister of Interior, the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice and the Comptroller General of Prisons and asked for reactions and clarification. At the time of going to press, only the Minister of Interior had responded, saying that “The Nigerian government is not unaware of most of the observations… The various ongoing reform initiatives are intended to provide short, medium and long-term solutions to most of the nagging problems.” This report is based on testimonies of inmates and on the interviews held with all stakeholders. To respect the confidentiality of the people concerned, Amnesty International has not used the inmates' real names. Government failure to implement recommended reforms Many national and international organizations1 have warned the Nigerian government of the human rights violations occurring in the criminal justice system. In recent years, the Nigerian government has frequently expressed willingness to improve prison conditions and access to justice for those on pre-trial detention (inmates awaiting trial). The establishment of a Presidential Taskforce on Prison Reforms and Decongestion led to the release of around 8,000 prisoners in 1999. However, no long-term policy was adopted to address the problems in prisons and within a few years they were as congested as they had been before the release. In June 2001, the then Minister of Interior, Chief Sunday Afolabi, said that the government would review prison laws and prison reform, train personnel, rehabilitate inmates and revitalize the prison system with the Prison Reforms Program. It is reported to have spent NGN2.4 billion. In July 2002 President Olusegun Obasanjo, himself a former inmate, described the situation of inmates awaiting trial as “inhuman”. Since 2000, several working groups and committees on prison reforms have been established: The National Working Group on Prison Reform and Decongestion reviewed 144 prisons and revealed in its 2005 report that the population of Nigerian prisons over the previous 10 years had totalled between 40,000 and 45,000 inmates, most of them concentrated in the state capitals. Of those, 65 per cent were awaiting trial. The Inter-Ministerial Summit on the State of Remand Inmates in Nigeria's Prisons was established in 2005 to review the report of the previous Working Group on Prison Reform. It recommended the Federal Government respond to the problem of inmates awaiting trial, pay more attention to rehabilitation, and address the issue of the large number of inmates awaiting trial due to the shortage of defence counsel. ... In 2006, the Presidential Committee on Prison Reform and Rehabilitation was established. This committee recommended improving the conditions of service of prison and police officials, and addressing the issues of prison congestion and the large number of prisoners awaiting trial. When then President Obasanjo received the committee's report, he said that the Federal Government would implement its recommendations.6 The Presidential Commission on the Reform of the Administration of Justice (PCRAJ), established on 16 March 2006 to review the administration of justice in Nigeria and propose sustainable reforms, expressed concern that imprisonment was being overused, including in cases of the non-violent persons suspected of minor offences. ... The Committee on the Harmonization of Reports of Presidential Committees Working on Justice Sector Reform reiterated in April 2007 the recommendations of the PCRAJ. ... Impact of government reforma A draft prison bill was presented to the National Assembly in 2004.15 However, by the end of 2007 this bill had still not passed into law. Neither had the Police Act (Amendment) Bill, nor any of the other acts aimed at reforming the criminal justice system. The government has, on several occasions in 2006 and 2007, announced that it would release considerable numbers of inmates, including those awaiting trial and those on death row. This raised the expectations of inmates but did not lead to their release. In the prisons Amnesty International visited in July 2007, none of the inmates whose release had been announced in May 2007 had actually been released. ... Amnesty International concludes that Nigeria does not take seriously its responsibility towards its citizens in prison. Recommendations made by national and international organizations have failed to lead to any action by the government. The recommendations of all governmental committees and commissions appear to be little more than words, which have left the real situation in Nigeria's prisons unchanged. Inmates awaiting trial – especially those who cannot afford legal support – wait years for their trial to take place; the prisons remain overcrowded; prison authorities do not appear to receive the funds that have been allocated to improving conditions. Amnesty International is extremely concerned that few of the Nigerian government's promises have been translated into action. The judicial system Arbitrary arrest and detention "This woman did not do anything. She is in prison because her son fought with someone. They could not get him." - A prison officer, July 2007 All too often, individuals who are not suspected of committing any crime are incarcerated in Nigeria's prisons along with those suspected or convicted of crimes. Some were arrested in place of a family member whom the police could not locate. Others suffer from mental illness and were brought to prison to relieve their families of responsibility for their care. Most are very poor people who have no lawyer to advocate for them. The Nigerian Constitution (Section 35) guarantees the right to be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time. If there is a court of competent jurisdiction within 40km, a reasonable time is defined as one day; in all other cases “reasonable” is considered to be two days or longer, depending on the distances and circumstances.21 In practice, this is hardly ever accomplished. The Nigeria Police Force claim they cannot investigate a crime and interrogate suspects within such a short time, saying: “There is no case that you can crack within 24 hours unless it is a traffic offence”.22 Individuals who are charged with crimes are routinely held in pre-trial detention for extended periods, even when there is little evidence to support the charge, where the accused person poses little or no risk to society, or where the crime is not a serious one. If Amnesty International's interviews are any indication, pre-trial detention routinely exceeds one year, and three to four years is not unusual. In a typical account, one inmate told Amnesty International, "I have been here three years. No progress - no bail. They just keep adjourning. I cannot see what is happening in my case." In virtually every prison, Amnesty International researchers spoke to some inmates who reported that they had been awaiting trial for seven years or more. For example, Sunday spent nearly 40 days in police and State CID detention before he was first brought before a magistrate on 27 December 1999. He was 17 years old at the time and had been arrested on suspicion of culpable homicide. The magistrate did not have the jurisdiction to handle his case and remanded him to prison pending a police investigation, a practice known as a “holding charge”. At the time of Amnesty International's visit, seven years and eight months had passed, and he was still awaiting trial. The last time Sunday was in court was in September 2006, and his case was once more adjourned. The Magistrate Court continues to use the holding charge to keep him imprisoned. Sunday is now 25 years old and has spent nearly one-third of his life awaiting trial.

Conclusion Prisoners in Nigeria are systematically denied a range of human rights. Stakeholders throughout the Nigerian criminal justice system are culpable for maintaining this situation. The police do not bring suspects promptly before a judge or judicial officer; despite the Nigerian Constitution's guarantee that this will occur within 24 hours, it usually takes weeks – and in some cases months – before suspects are brought before a judge. Suspects are usually ill-treated in police custody; many are denied their right to contact their families or a lawyer, and in some police stations, suspects do not receive any food. The police routinely use torture to extract confessions and, despite this being widely acknowledged by the police themselves, little is done to stop it. In addition, the police do not respect the principle of the presumption of innocence. The judiciary fails to ensure that all inmates are tried within reasonable time; indeed, most inmates wait years for a trial. When inmates are convicted, most courts do not inform them of their right to appeal. Nor does the judiciary guarantee that all suspects are offered legal representation. Few of the courts take the necessary steps to end the use of evidence elicited as a result of torture. In breach of national and international law, the judiciary does not guarantee fair trial standards even in the case of minors. The prisons cannot ensure that conditions in all their facilities are adequate for the health and well-being of the prisoners. Severe overcrowding and a lack of funds have created a deplorable situation in Nigeria's prisons. The Federal Government has failed to implement the recommendations of many study groups and presidential committees over recent years. Few of the promises made by the Nigerian government have been carried out and this has led to the current problems being experienced in the country's prisons. The opening of prisons to non-governmental organizations has had a positive effect: NGOs bring food, educational materials and lawyers into the prisons. They organize religious activities, offer counselling and teach inmates. However, NGOs are not primarily responsible for the welfare of the inmates. It is time the Nigerian government faces up to its responsibilities for those in its prisons.