Decongesting Nigeria’s Prisons

In the bid to decongest Nigeria’s overflowing prisons, the Senate recently called on President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors to exercise their prerogatives of mercy to inmates whose detention are unlawful and those who have been in detention for periods longer than they would have served if convicted for the alleged offence. The Red Chamber also called on federal government to rehabilitate dilapidated prisons, even as it urged the Ministry of Interior and state governments to relocate prisons   from city centre to rural areas. Definitely, we are in agreement with the senate resolutions and call on the authorities to immediately put in place machinery to implement them. A visit to any of these facilities would expose the brutal life endured by inmates in Nigeria’s prisons.
It is heart rending to see what goes for prisons in the country. It is not only archaic; the facilities are so dilapidated that anyone would wonder whether they are for animals or human beings. The living conditions are so harsh that some of those held there do not even have enough space to sleep on the floor. Instead, prisoners are forced to take turns to lie down.
According to recent statistics by the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), there are 57,121 inmates as at October 2015. Incidentally, the country’s entire prison can hold only 50,15 persons. This means that these facilities are holding nearly 7,000 more men and women than they have room for. Of this population, 38,734 are awaiting trial.
What this reveals is that the prisons are overcrowded, under funded, and undermanned. The painful truth is that the majority of the prison inmates are on remand and therefore innocent. Even for convicted criminals, the prison must aim to reform and rehabilitate. It is a pity that Nigerian  leaders do not understand what a prison is meant for.
The main essence of imprisonment must be to protect the public from harm before the reformation of the mind. Retribution and deterrence are good penal objectives but without reformation and rehabilitation, they mean little. A crime infested society, as Nigeria will naturally be a society keen to see offenders behind bars. However, when these facilities are so decrepit that they are only centres of retribution, degradation and torture then their value to the society must be reassessed.
Prison conditions weigh heavily on the detainees, often causing depression and other psychological problems. Unfortunately, the status of the country’s prisons does not attract a great deal of public attention unlike the police and courts. Life in Nigerian prisons is indeed harrowing. While in other parts of the world, the prison is a place where convicted criminals are expected to come out reformed at the end of their sentences, in Nigeria they are more likely to come out hardened.
Having learned more of criminality than rehabilitation while in incarceration, a former inmate in Nigeria has a high probability of returning to crime after serving his time. It is therefore time the country enhances its criminal justice delivery system. In line with the powers conferred on them, both the president and state governors should from time to time exercise their prerogative of mercy with a view to decongesting our prisons. The time to do so is now.