The Notable Provisions Of The Nigeria’s New Law On Prisons – TheNigerialawyer

Nairalaw Analysis 

Nigerian prisons had been heavily criticized for their
overcrowded state and poor conditions. Experts said in such a
state, the prisons in the country lacked the capacity to reform
errant society members sent there for correction.

Rather than being reformed and turning a new leaf, many
offenders sent to the prisons, according to experts, become
hardened and turn to recidivists. Obsolete legislation, slow
justice system and inadequate funding are prominent on the list of
challenges identified by stakeholders to be hobbling the capacity
of the Nigerian prisons to reform locked-up inmates.

It was against this background that the signing of the
11-year-old Nigerian Correctional Service Bill on Wednesday,
14^th August, 2019 by the President was hailed by
stakeholders in the Nigerian criminal justice system.

The bill was first presented and read in the Senate in January
2008, 11 years ago, by a former senator and current chairman of the
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Victor Ndoma-Egba, in
the sixth assembly.

The Act repeals the Prisons Act and changes the name from
Nigeria Prisons Service to Nigerian Correctional Service, otherwise
known as ‘the Correctional Service. Section 1(3) of the Act also
stipulates that the Correctional Service will be headed by the
Controller-General and a minimum of eight Deputy
Controller-Generals.

The Act has two faculties: The Custodial Service and
Non-custodial Service.

The Custodial Service, among other roles as provided in section
10 of the Act, will custody and take control of persons legally
interned in safe, secure and humane conditions, conveying remand
persons to and from courts in motorized formations; Identifying the
existence and causes of anti-social behaviours of inmates;
Conducting risk and needs assessment aimed at developing
appropriate correctional treatment methods for reformation,
rehabilitation and reintegration; and implementing reformation and
rehabilitation programmes to enhance the reintegration of inmates
back into the society, among others.

The Non-Custodial Service faculty 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 includes
victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, community
mediation and other conciliatory measures as may be deemed
necessary at pre-trial, trial, during imprisonment or even post-
imprisonment stages.”

The Act also empowers the State Comptroller of Prisons to reject
additional prisoners where the prison in question is already filled
to capacity. By section 4 of the Act, in the event that the prison
has exceeded its maximum capacity, the State Comptroller shall
notify the Chief Judge of the State or the State Criminal Justice
Committee. Upon receipt of the notification the Chief Judge or the
State Criminal Justice Committee shall within a period not
exceeding one month take necessary steps to rectify the
overcrowding. Section 12(8) provides:

“Without prejudice to subsection 4, the State Comptroller of
Prisons in consultation with the Prison Superintendent shall have
the power to reject more intake of prisoners where it is apparent
that the prison in question is filled to capacity,”

Another key provision of the law under custodial service is in
Section 12 (2) (c) which provides that where a condemned prisoner
on death row can have their sentence reduced to life imprisonment
after 10 years without being executed. It states that:

“where an inmate sentenced to death has exhausted all legal
procedures for appeal and a period of 10 years has elapsed without
execution of the sentence, the Chief Judge may commute the sentence
of death to life imprisonment”.

The law also made a strong case for the use of non-custodial
sentencing for minor offenders instead of sending them to already
overcrowded jails.

The law states the Correctional Service must initiate behavior
modification in inmates through the provision of medical,
psychological, spiritual and counselling services for all offenders
including violent extremists.

The notable amongst the provisions introduced into the new Act
that are geared towards improving the prison (custodial) system are
summarized as follows:

1. Section 10 which provides clear functions of the Correction
   Service with correction being the primary goal;
2. Section 14 which provides reformation and rehabilitation of
   inmates through opportunities for education, vocational training as
   well as training in modern farming techniques and animal
   husbandry;
3. Section 9(1) which provides for Standard which custodial
   centres must meet
4. Section 13 which provides for Proper documentation of inmates
   such as his offence, personal history, biometrics, risk and needs
   assessment, psychological and mental health status etc and
   recommendations in respect of the sentencing or committal;
5. Sections 34 and 35 which provide for separate facilities for
   female and juvenile offenders;
6. Section 12(4) – (10) which provides for decongestion of
   custodial centres when filled beyond capacity and power of State
   Controller to refuse new inmates;
7. Sections 7 and 15 which provides for prevention of inhumane
   treatment of inmates;
8. Section 37 which provides for provision of non-custodial
   services to wit: probation, parole, community service etc.;
9. Section 12(2)(c) which provides for conversion of death
   sentence to Life imprisonment where inmate has spent 10 years and
   above in custody without being executed;
10. Section 23(4) which provides for the establishment of a health
    centre and deployment of at least a medical doctor in every
    custodial Centre.

A BRIEF REMARK ON THE LAW

The law has received commendation from stakeholders in the
administration of justice system. Among them is the Executive
Director, Prisoners’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, Mr Ahmed
Adetola-Kazeem, a staunch crusader for prison reforms, who
according to the Online Punch Newspaper Report of August
22^nd, 2019 described the new law as “a
watershed in the history of treatment of offenders in Nigeria.”
However, he raised concern about the practicability of Section
12(8), which empowered the State Controller of Correctional Service
to reject additional inmates when the facility under his watch is
full.

“The question then is: where will the inmates be taken to?
Will such an inmate be released, particularly where he has been
alleged to have committed heinous crimes?  This particular
provision is very unrealistic unless more prisons are built,
considering our population as a country, and more particularly in
urban areas like Lagos, Kano, Rivers etc,” Adetola-Kazeem
said.

He believes that except more prisons are built, that provision
of the law would not work as prisons in the country have already
overshot their capacity. Adetola-Kazeem further said the need had
arisen to move the prison from the Exclusive Legislative List to
the Concurrent Legislative List, so that both the Federal
Government and the states can share the burden of funding the
prison. He said until this was done and more prisons were built,
the law might be merely academic.

“It is suggested that the prison be removed from the
Exclusive Legislative List, so that states can cater for many of
the inmates in prison who committed or have been alleged to commit
state offences; that will lessen the burden of the Federal
Government. The state should build their prison,” he said.

Also, the Senior Legal Officer, Human Rights Law Services, Mr
Collins Okeke, argued that making the states share in the
responsibility of funding the prison would help to check
indiscriminate imprisonment of people for minor offences created by
state laws. He said because of the way our constitution is crafted,
prison is on the Exclusive Legislative List, under the control of
the Federal Government, so, state governments really don’t care and
magistrates just keep sending people to prison and the Federal
Government continues to pay; and for the Federal Government, nobody
is really asking questions about how much is going into servicing
the prisons. He then advocated too, like, Adetola-Kazeem that
prisons should be removed from the Exclusive Legislative List and
put in the Concurrent Legislative List, so that the states can
participate in the building and funding of prisons.”

The Executive Director, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of
Errants, Mr Sylvester Uhaa, also hailed the final signing of the
new law, which he said had been too long in coming. However,
despite describing it as “a great legislation with wonderful
innovations,” Uhaa is concerned about the culture of poor
implementation of laws in Nigeria. He said:

“I am concerned that the Federal Government, as we have seen
in the past, may not adequately fund its implementation, especially
with respect to the non-custodial options, which will require
significant amount of financial and human resources, political will
and commitment.”

In addition, he said successful implementation of the Act
depends very much on the level of inter-agency cooperation among
the Police, Judiciary and the Correctional Services, as well as on
judicial and police reforms. That If, for example, the high level
of indiscriminate and unlawful arrest of innocent and poor people
by law enforcement agencies continues, the courts and the
correctional facilities will remain congested.

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