- Urges government to grant more amnesty
- Enjoins Catholic Lawyers to volunteer pro bono services
Sir Egbert Imomoh, a corporate chieftain has described congestion of Nigerian Correctional Centres as social injustice meted to a large number of Nigerians on a daily basis. He raised strong concerns over the soaring cases of awaiting trials which constitute the majority of inmates across the overcrowded deplorable prison facilities in Nigeria. Data provided by the Nigerian Correctional Centres, as at June 10, 2024, showed that 56,149 out of 81,461 inmates are awaiting trials with dimmed hope of regaining freedom.
According to same data, the correctional centres combined nationwide have the capacity to accommodate 50,000 inmates, but currently houses 81,461 with only 25,769 on list of the convicted. Delivering a paper entitled, “Nigeria social Justice Issues: Where are the Catholic lawyers?” At the 2024 edition of Catholic Lawyers’ Day with the Archbishop held recently in Lagos, Sir Imomoh lamented that these detainees stay on pre-trial far longer than they would have stayed in Correctional Centres if they had been convicted.
Congestion in Nigerian Correctional centres
He illustrated the gloomy situation in Nigerian correctional centres, “A visit to any Nigerian correctional centre is a heart wrenching experience. What strikes one immediately is the age of the correctional centre, the congestion, and more importantly, the large number of persons who are yet to be tried and convicted. They are referred to as ‘awaiting trial’. “They stand out because they do not wear correctional centres uniform and make do with any form of clothing that comes their way. Those awaiting trial have not been tried, may not know when they will be tried and the deeply worrying aspect of their detention is the fact that many are held for crimes for which if they had been promptly tried and perhaps convicted, they would have served their terms, reformed, rehabilitated and departed into the free world. “These detainees simply do not know when they will depart from the confines of correctional centres.”
The former Chairman of Guaranty Trust Bank noted that the situation of the pre-trial detainees is further worsened because they are not privy to any form of reformation. According to Sir Imomoh, Correctional Centres are incapacitated to implement their mission which says “promote public protection by providing assistance for offenders in their reformation and rehabilitation under safe, secure and humane conditions in accordance with universally accepted standard, and to facilitate their social reintegration into society”.
“Because the correctional centres service does not have the mandate to commence the reformation of those awaiting trial, it means that rehabilitation which is a very important part of the mission of correctional centres service is not applicable to these poor souls awaiting trial,” he explained. Sir Imomoh attributed the congestion of the Nigerian Correctional Centres to certain factors that border on the court’s reluctance to adopt the non-custodial sentencing option and continued criminalisation of petty offences. “The process of handling accused persons has a number of fault lines. The first is the fact that many are held for petty crimes for which a non-custodian sentence would suffice and at very limited cost to the state. “Secondly, the criminal process takes a leisurely time with too many adjournments for all kinds of reasons. “Thirdly, bail terms can be so tough that many cannot afford them, and therefore remain behind bars. “Fourthly, the logistical capabilities of the correctional centres are often inadequate, and this hampers their capabilities to bring detainees from correctional centres to court when cases are due.”
The current situation; gross injustice
According to him, the following statistics (Ref. 4) as at 10th of June, 2024 indicate:
• Total capacity of Nigerian correctional centres: about 50,000
• Population of detainees in Nigeria: 81,461
• Convicted: 25,768 (31%)
• Number awaiting trial in Nigeria: 56,149 (69%)
Sir Imomoh said these figures do not cover all detainees at various Police stations in the country. The former Deputy Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company, stated that the high level of congestion makes it simply impossible to treat detainees in correctional centres humanely as indicated in the revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Correctional centres set out in the Nelson Mandela Rules (Ref 5) to which Nigeria is a signatory. “They clearly specify how detainees should be held and this is currently not being achieved because of overcrowding. This is a gross injustice that cries to heaven for remediation. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly, he said.”
Reasons for long awaiting trial
in the administration of justice, over-bearing bail requirements, lack of capacity of many to pay even small fines, unnecessary detention of many for anti-social behaviour such as loitering, crossing the road, urinating in the street, e.t.c; accounted for the high number of awaiting trial inmates in prisons. The engineering expert itemised other reasons,
• Too many are detained and ‘forgotten’. They simply get lost in the maze of bureaucratic red tape. Some detainees do not have Court records or even know the courts they were arraigned. Either their IPO is no more in the jurisdiction or the case file is missing.
• Laws that allow correctional centres sentences to kick in when small fines cannot be met particularly by the lowly in society.
• The logistics capabilities of the Correctional Services are often inadequate, and this hampers the capabilities to transport those ‘awaiting trial’ to court when cases are due.
• Since the states do not bear the cost of detention, they do not feel the burden of detaining people unnecessarily and probably do not see the need for the reduction of detainees.
Consequence of overcongestion
Sir Imomoh went on to list the consequences of over-congestions of Nigerian Correctional Centres:
• The correctional centres service is unable to fulfil its mission which is “to promote public protection by providing assistance for offenders in their reformation and rehabilitation under safe, secure and humane conditions in accordCongestion in Nigerian Correctional Centres… Continued from PAGE 01 ance with universally accepted standards and to facilitate their social reintegration into society.”
• Existing facilities are stretched.
• High cost of running correctional centres.
• Funds that could be used for the upgrade of correctional centres, instead of being used for feeding those awaiting trial.
• Offenders spend more time than necessary behind bars and may come out more hardened than when they first entered.
• Diseases are rampant owing to overcrowding and leading to the death of inmates. De-congesting correctional centres
The Guest Speaker called for urgent measures to be put in place to speedily decongest the prisons not only in the interest of justice, but welfare of prisoners as well as curtail cost of prisons’ maintenance. Sir Imomoh tasked the Catholic Lawyer to create workable and sustainable solutions to resolve the congestion issue in the correctional centres. He donated a desktop and printer to support the course. He suggested few steps that can be taken towards the reduction of detainees awaiting trial as he enjoined the Catholic Lawyers to ensure that hope is given to indigent inmates through free legal representation and advocate for better criminal justice system reform.
“One of the bottlenecks leading to incarceration is the absence of legal representation when accused persons are arraigned in court. I suggest that all Catholic lawyers volunteer two hours of legal service per week for pro bono service. “Permit me to test out this concept in this room to see how many of you would accept this challenge. I understand that there are about 450 Catholic lawyers in Lagos. This means that in four weeks of each month, you Catholic lawyers can contribute 3,600 manhours towards the representation of accused persons in court which is a significant figure and will soon be noticed by other lawyers who might be infected and join forces with you.” Noting that the correctional centres’ data collection and management system currently in use might be archaic, he urged the lawyers to set up and man systems and provide technical people to update such systems which will play a critical role in understanding the bottle-necks.
To draw attention to the social injustice being perpetuated at the correctional centres through prolonged incarceration of inmates, he beckoned on the Archdiocesan newspapers, The Catholic Herald to compliment the openness of the Nigerian correctional centre who regularly publishes the statistics of inmates on their website to replicate same by doing so on the pages of the publication. Sir Imomoh further charged government to commit to large-scale reduction of detainees by embarking on actions that include:
• Launch a campaign for Governors to grant amnesty to those who committed minor offences and have spent more than three years in detention without trial.
• Similarly, push for Governors to commit to grant amnesty to 5 to 10% of those awaiting trial every Democracy and Independence Day celebration.
He noted that the number of inmates in correctional facilities can be reduced by about 40 per cent if the non-custodial alternatives as provided for in the Correctional Service Act are explored. He added, “Campaign for the sentencing of minor offenders to carry out community services e.g. cleaning of streets and gutters instead of sentencing them to jail. “ Collaboration with lay organisations Sir Imomoh implored the lawyers to collaborate with other the Knights and lay organisations to decongest the correctional centres.
“Our lawyers need to collaborate with other Catholic organisations like Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM), Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Knights of St. Sylvester International (KSSI), CMO and CWO in order to achieve a deep and wide penetration of our advocacy.” He expressed regrets that the transition from prisons services to Correctional services is yet to make a significant change as he recalled an excerpt of an article dated August 23, 2019 by a criminologist, Dr Kayode Akinleye: “The distress, the health conditions and the poor sanitary situation are demeaning and disgraceful. But we do not believe that the change of name from Nigerian Prison Service to Nigerian Correctional Service as was done last week by President Muhammadu Buhari offers any practical solution.
Besides, with the main challenge being that of congestion, there is nothing correctional about Nigerian correctional centres. Changing of name should not be the first phase of the proposed reform in the Nigerian Correctional centres. The level of social decadence in that institution is indeed alarming and unimaginable”. Sir Imomoh posited that it is sad that not much has changed since the change of name. He urged the citizenry who have not visited correctional centres not to look at the data presented as mere statistics. “They are not because the numbers presented refer to real people many of whom are young and whose psyche may be damaged for ever by being in correctional centres for offences for which they may never be tried, or if tried whose sentence would have been much shorter than their incarceration.
Acknowledging that considerable commendable work has been done by various people, including judiciary and religious groups to reduce the congestion, he observed that the efforts have rather created more room for more detainees. Sir Imomoh however noted that there is crying need to have a concerted effort at reducing the number being held without trial firstly, and more importantly for humanitarian reasons but secondly to free up funds used for feeding them so that the money can be channelled towards making the correctional centres a better place for those who have to be there. He demanded for more action than words.