BY ASC HARUNA ISA mnipr, nuj
No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones, said Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty-seven years in custody.
The eleven years of advocacy by Nigerian civil society seem to be paying off. In August, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, which seeks to orient the criminal justice system toward the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders. The bill renames the Nigerian Prisons Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service and replaces prison time with measures like community service for certain minor offenses. State Custodial authorities also gain powers to reject additional offenders when their custodial centres are at capacity.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW LAW
The new Nigerian Correctional Service Act has the following structures;
1. The law empowers the State Controller of Corrections to reject additional inmates where the Custodial Centre in question is already filled to capacity.
2. The law divides the Correctional Service into two main areas which are, a) The Custodial Service and b) Non-custodial Service.
3. The Custodial Service will, among other things, take control of persons legally interned in safe, secure and humane conditions and provide support to facilitate the speedy disposal of cases of persons awaiting trial.
4. The Non-custodial Service will be responsible for the administration of non-custodial measures like community service, probation, parole, restorative justice measures and such other measures as a court of competent jurisdiction may order.
5. The objective of the law is to focus on corrections and promote reformation, rehabilitation and re-integration of offenders.
6. The law stipulates that the Correctional Service will be headed by the Comptroller-General and a minimum of eight Deputy Controller-Generals.
7. The law states that, the Correctional Service must initiate behaviour modification in inmates through the provision of medical, psychological, spiritual and counselling services for all offenders including violent extremists.
8. The law also states that where an inmate sentenced to death has exhausted all legal procedures for appeal and a period of 10 years has elapsed without the execution of the sentence, the Chief Judge may revert the death sentence to life imprisonment.
MODELS OF PUNISHING OFFENDERS
Retribution Making the Criminal pay for what they have done. (e.g. Revenge/An Eye for an Eye) Deterrence Punishment designed to put other criminals off from committing the crime. Reformation To try and change the criminal, so they no longer commit the crime.
EDUCATION OF INMATES
In spite of the generally unhealthy conditions that convicted person live in custodial centres across Nigeria, it is heartwarming to learn that many inmates in virtually all the correctional facilities in the country are embracing education with zest, with some of them emerging with overall best results in exams.
There is no doubt that this positive trend follows on the heels of sustained advocacy by interest groups, including the National Stakeholders Committee on Custodial Reforms and Decongestion, the Inmates Reform and Welfare Association, religious bodies and others, which have helped sensitise the custodial authorities, the government and the inmates on the need to promote education as a giant strategy towards turning convicted criminals into useful members of society.
Offenders who go into the custodies and come out with exceptional skills or quality academic achievements are bound to see themselves at a higher station in life with new purpose and incentive to contribute to the development of society. But this can only be possible when they are offered the opportunities to put their skills to use. In a society where thousands of young people who do not have criminal records graduate from our educational system only to be dumped in the dry jobless market, it takes great courage for those in custody to pin their hope for future self-actualisation on education.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING OF INMATES
Vocational training or career technical education programs in prison are designed to teach inmates about general employment skills or skills needed for specific jobs and industries. The overall goal of vocational training is to reduce inmates risk of recidivating by teaching them marketable skills they can use to find and retain employment following release from prison. Vocational and technical training programs can also reduce institutional problem behaviors by replacing inmates idle time with constructive work.
Vocational education can be offered in various trade industries, including barbering, building maintenance, carpentry, electrical trades, painting, plumbing, food service/culinary arts, horticulture, custodial maintenance, upholstery, auto detailing, masonry, welding, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. The type of vocational training available in a custodial centre will depend on inmates interests, availability of teaching staff, and funding.
IMPACT OF SECTION 34 OF THE NIGERIAN CORRECTIONAL SERVICE ACT
Section 34 of the correctional service act focuses on female inmates and their needs. Section 34(1) mandates separate female institutions for female inmate in every state. Although, not every state in the federation has a custodial facility, the facilities which house female inmates are separate from the male facilities. Subsection 2 mandates the provision of necessary facilities to address the special needs of female inmates such as medical and nutritional needs of female inmates. This includes the needs of pregnant women, nursing mothers and babies in custody. This also includes the provision of a crèche in every female custodial center for the well-being of babies in custody with their mothers and for prenatal, antenatal health care and sanitary provisions for female inmates. This provision acknowledges the role of the mother in the upbringing of their children. In as much as the mother is being punished for her crime, in order to avoid double punishment, the child must be well taken care of and this is the reality that this section recognises. The future of the child must not be jeopardised by the mistakes of the mother. Also, the section recognizes the urgent medical and sanitary needs in the female prisons. These rights can now be enforced in court both as a violation of the act and a violation of human rights as a whole. Although, one of the impediments of this might be the low funding for Nigerian prisons in general which may affect the ability of the system to provide these facilities. The section can therefore be seen as a step in the right direction and immediate action is needed to achieve this. This is also similar to the First Step Act in the USA which provides that female inmates be provided with free menstrual products to protect their rights of dignity.
Although, Subsection 2 and 3 go a long way to provide for mothers and female inmates, Subsection 4 addresses preventive measures against pregnancy, especially those that may result from sexual abuse by prison staff. It provides that all female inmates shall undergo pregnancy tests on the first day of admission or at a time not exceeding 14 days after admission. Where the test is positive, such inmate shall be provided with necessary medical care and support. This provision helps the prison officials to have a database of female inmates that need access to antenatal care. It also helps custodial officials to determine whether a pregnancy was gotten before or after admission into the custodial center. This is important because Subsection 5 provides that where a female inmate is found to be pregnant while in custody, an investigation shall be carried out including DNA analysis where needed to find the perpetrator who shall be prosecuted. This helps to curb sexual assault by prison officials to some extent. However, not all sexual assaults lead to pregnancy and a more comprehensive provision on this is needed.
Equally important, government and civil society organisations should begin the long process of addressing practices of the countrys security services that drive the undue growth of the custodial centres population, especially arbitrary arrests and detention. Those responsible for enforcing justice policy, especially police officers and correctional officers, must also buy in to the vision of the new law, which purports to center criminal justice on respect for human dignity. Seminars, training and re-training programs are crucial, as is recruiting new officers who can then be subject to a reformed curriculum, guided by principles of restorative justice. In addition to training,, policymakers can strengthen incentives for culture change by putting accountability and monitoring measures in place to detect and punish cases of unfair treatment of inmates.