16/08/2019
NIGERIAN PRISON SERVICE VS. NIGERIAN CORRECTIONAL SERVICE,
NEED FOR TRUE CORRECTIONAL METHODS BY THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT.
Just yesterday, (Wednesday, 14th August, 2019), President Muhammadu Buhari signed a bill
changing the name of the Nigerian Prison Service to Nigerian Correctional Service into law. This
Act revoked the Nigerian Prisons Service Act.
According to Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on national assembly
matters, the Nigerian Prison Service will now be known as the Nigerian Correctional Service based
on the new law. He added that the correctional service has two main faculties: custodial service and
non-custodial service. In his words, “The non-custodial faculty of the correctional service is
responsible for the administration of non-custodial measures, namely: community Service,
probation, parole, restorative justice measures and such other measures as a court of competent
jurisdiction may order. Restorative Justice measure approved in the Act include victim-offender
mediation, family group conferencing, community mediation and other conciliatory measures as may
be deemed necessary pre-trial, trial during imprisonment or even post- imprisonment stages.”
Undisputably, the need for correction of not only the Act setting up the Nigerian Prison but the
entire system including the facilities available for the prisoners, is long over due. The goals and
orientation of the Nigerian Prison Service were spelt out in Decree No.9 of 1972. The Prison was
charged with taking custody of those legally detained, identifying causes of their behaviour and
retraining them to become useful citizens in the society.
The primary aim of the Nigerian prison Service is to secure custody of the prisoners, ultimately
reform and rehabilitate them purposely to be responsible citizens. To achieve this objective
therefore, the administration of the prisons became streamlined. Structurally, the general
administration of the prison is under one Director, with additional “three principal agencies or
divisions performing different roles to enable (the prisons) execute its programme expeditiously and
achieve its goal. These divisions are Technical, Inspectorate and Welfare with each unit under a
Deputy Director of Prisons.
According to Rtd Dr I. W. Orakwe, the Controller of Prisons in charge of Planning Research and
Statistics, Prisons Headquarters Abuja, “the philosophy of this structure was based on the
stipulations of Decree 9 of 1972 and the need to introduce specialized units to take care of specific
areas of the Prisons Service. The Technical Division for instance was charged with the responsibility
of general administration and the provision of logistics in addition to supervising the farms and
industries. The Inspectorate Division was to oversee staff deployment, training, discipline,
promotion and recruitment. The welfare division was to be the pivot of the new prison order. It was
to see to inmate treatment, training and rehabilitation. It also oversees the medical needs of the
prisons in addition to liaising between the prisons and voluntary and humanitarian organizations
who assist in the treatment and rehabilitation of the prisoners.
Nigerian Prison now has a command structure that boast of 8 Zonal commands, 36 State Commands,
1 FCT Command, 144 Prisons including farm centres and 83 Satellite Prisons. It also has four
Training Schools, one Staff College and 2 Borstal Institutions.
At the level of manpower the Service now boasts of more men of the professions than at any other
time in its history. There are among the officers, medical, environmental health officers,
sociologists/psychologists, lawyers, general administrators, engineers etc. As for professional
spread, the full complement of these officers is on ground to ensure that the goal of inmate reform
is attained.”
Despite this paper structure however, the condition of the Nigerian Prison is heart-bleeding. Based
on experience and regular visit to the prisons, there is nothing depicting the above described
structure and it does not have any corrective measure in the lives of the prisoners. In fact, most
prisoners become more hadden and criminally minded as a result of the polluted prison environment
being exposed to.
The summary of the activities of the Nigerian Prison was perfectly described by the former Chief
Judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke (rtd). The judge was quoted in one of the newspaper
reports to have said: "Today in Nigeria, we have seen countless cases where defendants are
arrested for minor offences such as burglary and wandering; they are locked up in our prisons for
the flimsiest reasons to join the teeming population awaiting trial inmates. They are in our prisons
with hardened criminals and by the time they come out they have been initiated into a life of crime
and are ready to spread terror, death, and destruction in their post-prison escapades."
Statistically, the total capacity of Nigerian prisons is less than 48,000 but those under detention as
at May, 2019, is 73,248. Therefore, the high level of congestion makes it simply impossible to treat
prisoners humanely. Clearly, the revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
(Nelson Mandela Rules) to which Nigeria is signatory, stipulates how prisoners in detention should be
held and treated but this is currently not being observed in the Nigerian Prison.
What baffle me most on the issue of congestion of the prisons is the large number of persons who
are yet to be tried and convicted. These set of people are being referred to as awaiting trial. They
are easily identify as they do not wear prison uniform nor have any formal way of identification.
Even the Nigerian Prison Service released a data on their website and state categorically that the
total number of those under the roofs of all the prisons in Nigeria is 73,248 out of whom only
23,373 (32 per cent) have been tried and convicted and 49,875 (68 per cent) are awaiting trial. This
callous arrangement called awaiting trial makes the faith of the prisoners on awaiting trial list to be
uncertain. On personal interaction with the prisoners and various human rights organizations,
many are held for crimes for which they no knowledge about. Also for some who are held for minor
offences, if promptly tried and perhaps convicted, they would have served their jail terms,
reformed, rehabilitated and departed to the society.
While we support the new law recently signed by the Federal Government, we hope that the
government will not just correct the name of the Nigerian Prison but the entire systemic and
inhuman treatment Nigerians witness on daily basis in the prisons. Going by the analysis of the new
law, the non-custodial faculty of the correctional service which is responsible for the
administration of non-custodial measures, namely: community Service, probation, parole,
restorative justice measures and such other measures as a court of competent jurisdiction may
order, might be a saving grace for the people on the awaiting trial lists and possibly be a lasting
solution to the Nigerian prison congestion if truly implemented.
F. S. Daud Esq. is a principal partner of F. S. DAUD & CO. and a Human Rights activist.
