GIFT HABIB in this report examines how criminal acts and other illegalities thrive in the custodial centres and how these encourage a relapse into crime by inmates after their release

The major mandate of the Nigeria Correctional Service is the safe custody of the legally interned and to ensure that inmates are reformed, rehabilitated and effectively reintegrated back into society. But the Correctional Service, formerly known as the Nigerian Prison Service, is bedevilled with a plethora of problems, hampering its ability to reform inmates. Apart from prison congestion, there is also the problem of corruption or compromise among some officials.

On November 7, 2016, Success Ehimen was convicted for drug peddling and sentenced to five years imprisonment at the Kuje Medium Custodial Centre in Abuja. But on getting to the custodial centre, he found to his shock that Indian hemp was in circulation among the inmates. The illicit substance was being supplied to the inmates by some corrupt warders.

Narrating his journey to the gulag where he spent five years, Ehimen explained how he was arrested for involvement in hard drugs trafficking and punished for his crime.

The 41-year-old said “One day, someone approached me and said if I could sell hard drugs, he would pay me a certain amount which was tempting. Though I do not smoke and if I see ‘igbo’ (Indian hemp), I cannot identify it. My role was to arrange the drugs in the vehicle, use my plantain (which I trade on) to camouflage it and transport it. I was caught during my second mission from Edo State to Abuja and that was how I spent five years in the Kuje medium custodial centre in Abuja.”

Sharing his experience in prison, Ehimen said he was surprised to see drugs being consumed by some inmates in the correctional centre.

“What baffled me during my stay in the custodial centre was that the crime I was arrested and jailed for existed there. The drugs were available there. Some of the inmates smoke. It was in the custodial centre I knew that there were drugs harder than ‘Igbo’ (hemp). Some bad warders sell it to the inmates,’’ he stated.

Johnson Eze, who spent 14 years in the Kuje Medium Custodial Centre, also alluded to the fact that corrupt officials trafficked Indian hemp in the facility.

“There is drug trafficking among a few officers. They corrupt the inmates brought in for reformation. They bring in marijuana and hard drugs for them,” Eze alleged. Eze, who described himself as a pastor, said he was acquitted after spending 14 years in prison.

“I was wrongly accused by the Nigerian Police Force for conspiring with one of their officers. I was sent to Kuje Medium Custodial Centre in 2005 and was discharged and acquitted on May 2, 2019, awaiting trial,” he narrated.

Another ex-inmate, who gave her name simply as Charity, told our correspondent that during her 10-year stay at the custodial centre in Suleja, Niger State, marijuana was in free supply behind the walls.

She pointed out, “Indian hemp and cigarettes were in abundance during my stay at the custodial centre. Warders collected tips from visitors so that the inmates could be treated properly.”

On September 20, 2023, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, declared that the custodial centres are training grounds for hardened criminals. The CP’s assertion was buttressed by a student activist, Gbenga Rotimi, who was arrested and remanded at the Kosere Medium Prisons, Ile-Ife, Osun State in March 2018. Kosere narrated that he risked being negatively influenced as he was locked up with hardened criminals, instead of being graded as a lesser offender.

Sharing his story, he noted, “People were battered and exposed to more criminals, especially those awaiting trials. I was exposed to hardened criminals. I met those who said they were armed robbers. Imagine what would have happened if I had stayed there for a longer period. I am pretty sure I would have been influenced by the hardened criminals because I was very young. It was a very terrible experience.”

He also alluded to the corrupt practices by the warders, saying, ‘’If people come to visit you and give you money, the selfish warders will collect their percentage. The warders collect money from visitors and the inmates too. Whenever our family or friends came to visit, the warders requested money so that one can get better treatment.

“When you get to your prison, the provost in your prison will collect his share or collect everything and whenever I felt like buying anything, I met him. The cost of everything there was four times the price outside.” As far as the ex-inmate was concerned, “There was nothing correctional about the Nigerian custodial centres.’’

Speaking further, he added, “On no account will I agree with you that the correctional service is a correctional ground. In fact, I do not understand why the name was changed. In developed countries, prisoners are taken care of with good meals and in a good environment.’’

Disclosing how he landed in prison custody, Rotimi narrated, “I was remanded in the prison as a student after we led a protest against the forceful eviction of students on the campus hotels because some of the university officials were building hotels off the campus and they wanted the students to pay for those hotels at exorbitant prices in the name of renovation, which was never done.

“In the course of the protest, five of us were arrested and the following day, we appeared in the court at Ile-Ife and we were charged with assault and others. We were reprimanded at Kosere Medium Prisons.”

Another ex-inmate who simply identified himself as David, relived his experience at the Kirikiri maximum prison where he spent 14 years. He explained that the prison officials were involved in various unprofessional conducts, including trafficking hard drugs, extortion and other illicit activities that were antithetical to the reformation of offenders.

“Every corruption that goes on in the custodial centres, the warders are aware of it. Take for instance, some officers smuggle drugs like tramadol, cocaine among others and sell to the inmates who can afford it. These inmates in turn give it out to their cliques,’’ he noted.

Continuing, he stated, “Even the issue of contrabands such as gadgets; once you give some warders money, they will allow you to keep it with you for some time.

“There is nothing correctional about the custodial centres. If I should start telling you what goes on there, we will not finish the discussion in hours. I think it is just an individual decision to reform one’s self.

“Imagine being thrown into a prison for a crime you know nothing about. People come into the prison cool-headed and when they leave, they become worse. Some were worse when sent to prison, and changed for the best when they came out.”

Another ex-inmate, Matthew John, attributed the notoriety in the custodial centres to officials who were only interested in profiting from the misery of the inmates under their care.

He argued, “Inmates can never go out of the custodial centre to bring in contrabands, it is only the staff that can do that. During my 16 years of stay in the custodial centre, warders collected #15,000 to bring an android phone into the prison.

“Those warders with no ranks cannot bring in phones because the senior warders will search them when coming into the prison. However, those warders with ranks most times are not searched. Those warders seize phones and other gadgets just to fulfil all righteousness but they are the ones that still bring in the phones to inmates who can afford it. The staff bring in drugs for inmates such as Indian hemp, shisha etc. Some inmates misbehave when they take these drugs.”

The motorcyclist recalled how he was unjustly arrested and incarcerated after he was held for alleged involvement in a fight which resulted in damage to a car.

“I went to drop a passenger in Badagry in Lagos state with my bike. On my way back from Badagry, I was arrested alongside four bike men because of a fight that broke out. A car windscreen was broken. I didn’t even know anything about the fight because I was just approaching the place when I was arrested. The summary of the story was that I spent 16 years in the maximum security prison in Lagos,’’ he added.

However, in a move to address the abominable practices going on in its facilities, the NCoS management recently dismissed two officers and sanctioned 35 for misconduct.

A statement by the NCoS spokesperson, Abubakar Umar, revealed that the men were sanctioned for trafficking in contrabands, unauthorized absence from duty, stealing, negligence of duty, criminal conspiracy as well as aiding and abetting.

Umar noted that the offences constituted threats to security of correctional facilities and could jeopardize public safety and national security.

“The Controller-General of Corrections,Haliru Nababa, has clarified that the service will continue to reward diligence and exceptional performances, while it will not hesitate to punish erring personnel in accordance with the provisions of extant laws.

“The Controller-General maintains that the service will leave no stone unturned to ensure that ‘bad eggs’ are flushed out of the system,” he said.

On October 30, 2022, the NCoS had announced the sacking and warning of 38 officers for various acts of misconduct and offences against standard practice. Nine of the personnel were dismissed from the service while 25 were sent away on compulsory retirement and four more were issued warning letters.

On March 24, 2023, the NCoS destroyed contrabands confiscated from various custodial facilities estimated at over N150 million. The exhibits included cell phones, SIM cards, laptops, hard drugs, power banks and other electronic devices.

Meanwhile, a prison officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity blamed poor staff welfare for the rising cases of trafficking in the facilities.

He said, “Staff welfare Is nothing to write home about. Some are still stagnated on one rank for years without promotion. Imagine an officer on level seven for 10 years without promotion. How do you expect the officer to perform excellently? Some officers are promoted without being paid their arrears while they pay some officers but with huge deductions.

“The monthly salary of the lowest rank officer (Correctional Assistant 111) is #38,000. How do you expect such officers to perform well? This has led many officers to bring prohibited items like Indian hemp, alcohol, etc. to the yard for inmates. They sell these things to them to augment their income.”

Apart from the poorly motivated staff, congestion in the correctional centres has been identified as a bane of the Nigerian criminal justice system. It has become paramount for the custodial centres to reform and make the lives of inmates more useful whether during custody or after their release.

It was In the light of this that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, the Police Act 2020, and the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019 were passed to sanitise the criminal justice system. In 2019, the Nigerian Prisons Service had its name changed to the Nigerian Correctional Service to reflect and satisfy the yearning of the citizens for reformation of the inmates.

The change of name followed the signing into law of the 11-year-old Nigerian Correctional Service Bill by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Act empowers the state Controller of Corrections to reject additional prisoners/offenders where the custodial centre in question is already filled to capacity.

According to section 12 (8), “Without prejudice to sub-section 4, the State Controller of Correctional Service in conjunction with the correctional centre superintendent shall have the power to reject more intakes of inmates where it is apparent that the custodial centre in question is filled to capacity.”

With this, the issue of overcrowding of cells was expected to be addressed by the Act. However, since the bill was signed into law four years ago, prison congestion has not been resolved and it continues to constitute a major hindrance to inmates’ reformation and rehabilitation. Experts said overcrowding in the prisons remains a serious challenge and stands as an obstacle to the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (also known as Mandela Rules) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

In Nigeria, there are over 240 custodial centres spread across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, with a total number of 81,742 inmates; out of which 56,211 were awaiting trial and 25,531 were convicted as of September 25, 2023.

The convicted Inmates were 31 per cent while awaiting trial inmates formed 69 per cent of the population. A significant proportion of awaiting trial inmates have reportedly spent more years behind bars than they would have spent in the event of their conviction and sentencing.

On April 30, 2023, the former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, called for state governments’ cooperation in tackling congestion in custodial facilities across the country. He said the facilities were 22 per cent overcrowded above their capacity. Only recently, the Lagos State NCoS Controller, Ben Freedman, said about 9,000 inmates were in three correctional centres in the state. He said that they have almost 9,000 locked up in Lagos, adding that the maximum capacity should be about 1,500.

Aside from prison congestion, other old challenges that remain to date were poor feeding of inmates, and low medical care, among others. The promised release of 4,000 inmates by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, was believed to be in response to the government’s desire to decongest the custodial facilities.

A legal practitioner, Victor Giwa, believes the NCoS management should take full responsibility for the failures of the service.

Giwa noted, “When one enacts a law, the executives should immediately effect the corrections on the amendment. The law has not been the problem. The problem lies with the operators of the law. It is the duty of the Controller-General of NCoS to start looking at the law with a view to effecting these changes and moving in those facilities that will allow the correctional centres to live up to their name.

“We have over 230 custodial centres in Nigeria and the Kuje custodial centre which is located in the Federal Capital Territory ought to be an example but unfortunately, it is not. It is really not nice seeing a slow approach to these things.

“It is true that the people in charge have not done much to rehabilitate the former prisons to become correctional centres. However, it is not correct that the correctional centres should be reverted back to prisons. What we should do is that we engage the law.”

The Executive Director of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, Uju Agomoh, who acknowledged the efforts of the NCoS in making positive impacts, noted that the issue of congestion might continue to mar the efforts of the service.

Agomoh explained, “There is the presence of the challenge of recidivism. However, there are records of inmates who left custody better than they were. It is a known fact that the correctional service is making some good impact in terms of education, especially with the National Open University.

“Some inmates have sat and passed their NECO examinations, gotten their first degrees and proceeded to obtain Master’s degrees in custody. Some on record are pushing their Ph.Ds. Others are also making progress in skills acquisition and have excelled in such areas as tailoring, carpentry etc.

“This is not to say that it is an easy road. Most of the custodial centres are lacking in good skill acquisition centres and even where they have, they lack the necessary tools for learning. The same challenge lies in the aspect of education.

“The fundamental challenge in terms of making the necessary positive change while in custody is congestion. When a custodial centre interns beyond its capacity, the facility is overstretched, and the officers are overwhelmed and distracted from their core duties of reformation of offenders. Ultimately, this affects the outcome of incarceration.”

The activist called for a comprehensively overhaul of the prison administration system to address the high number of waiting trial persons, over-utilisation of imprisonment or pre-trial detention as well as provide effective rehabilitation and re-integration programmes as provided for in the NCoS Act to advance the justice and security sector as well as reduce the rate of re-offending behaviours.”

On his part, the NCoS spokesperson, Abubakar, maintained that the centres have facilities to reform inmates, adding that it was up to the individual inmate to turn a new leaf after gaining freedom.

Abubakar explained, “In the past, no inmates had access to education but today, they have access to education. They are privileged to attend the school ‘Behind the Wall’ to develop themselves. There is also what we call employment rehabilitation. It is the skills acquired while in custody so that when they go out, they will use the skills to get work for themselves or employ labour. We did not have Open University facilities but today we have a lot that is helping in the rehabilitation of inmates.

“Secondly, on the issue of correction, no one can say that there is no correction because correction is always there. We have seen several and I want to let you know that after the jail term of the inmates, they employ people. An example is one Ishaku from Gombe State. He had no skill when he came into the custodial centre, but he has employed over 134 people as we speak.

“You cannot vouch that all inmates who served jail terms or are serving will turn out good. I can tell you that more of the inmates that we have discharged have something to fall back to.

“In fact, the Comptroller General introduced ‘After-Care’. ‘After-Care’ is a succour given to inmates through their tools. Those who went through rehabilitation therapy are provided the tools they learnt which will help them integrate back to society after release from custody.” (The PUNCH)

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