At least 56,131 non-sentenced inmates of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) are currently rotting away in various custodial centres instead of serving their punishment through community service as of November 2024, data gathered by Weekend Trust shows.

Experts identify lack of funding and legal conflicts as the major factors for the failure of the community service programme to take off alongside the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, when it was signed in 2015, as was expected.

The Implication of this is the continuing congestion in the custodial facilities nationwide, with many of them in dire conditions.

According to the Federal Ministry of Interior, which supervises the NCoS, there are 83,624 inmates, out of which 56,131 are awaiting trial.

The ministry further states that those convicted ? 27,053 ? represent 32 per cent of the total inmates, while the 56,131 awaiting trial represent 68 per cent.

Weekend Trust reports that not all the awaiting-trial inmates would receive non-custodial punishment when sentenced, but there is no doubt that a good number of them would.

The ministry states that as of July 29, only 500 inmates had been convicted and sentenced with punishments under the non-custodial measures, out of which 383 are to perform community service.

Many of these awaiting-trial inmates are alleged to have committed simple offences that would have been subject to community service.

According to findings, the minor offences which the awaiting-trial inmates were alleged to have committed include wandering, affray, traffic, disease control breaches, burglary and stealing etc.

Our reporter visited the custodial centre in Kuje, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and found that many awaiting-trial and sentenced inmates are kept in the same facility for a long time.

An inmate who simply identified himself as Oche narrated how the police arrested him in 2021, while he was going home from work and subsequently arraigned and remanded by a court, alongside a group of other suspects he had no previous acquaintance with.

Experts told our reporter that putting inmates of different status in the same facility exposes them to the same type of negative and positive influences, such as crime commission and evasion tactics on one hand, and training like tailoring, barbing, carpentry, shoemaking, computer application and poultry on the other.

They observed that efforts of the Nigeria Correctional Service had ensured that many inmates pursued further education at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) study centres, while religious activities in the facilities empowered many of them as cell pastors and imams leading prayers in worship centres in custody.

The huge number of inmates at correctional centres has also taken a toll on the annual budget of the NCoS, with the request for an increase in the feeding allowance for each inmate from N750 to N3,000 in the 2024 budget proposal.

However, the federal government in August increases the feeding allowance by 50 per cent, from N750 to N1,150.

FCT amends remand guidelines

As part of efforts to regulate the number of inmates at correctional centres, the chief judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf, had on July 8, unveiled the new sentencing guidelines, Strategic Action Plan for the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee from 2024 to 2025 and Guidelines and Monitoring Framework for the implementation of remand proceedings under part 30 of the ACJA.

The guidelines provide, among other things, procedures to prevent the abuse of detention and remand that could contribute to congestion across police facilities and correctional centres respectively.

Specifically, the strategic plan as enunciated by the FCT Monitoring Committee, which has Evbu Igbinedion as executive secretary, seeks the ?decongestion of correctional centres through efficient utilisation of probation and non-custodial alternatives to sentencing in line with the law, ensuring speedy trial of criminal matters through case management policies to enhance criminal prosecution and operationalisation of remand proceedings, plus ensuring the seamless implementation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.?

The sentencing guidelines are intended to sanitise the practice of obtaining a court remand without actual trial of inmates among law enforcement agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force.

Officers, relying on Section 110 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, which provides for remand for 10 days before commencement of trial, would go to area and magistrates? courts to seek approval of remand warrants, and after several months, trial would not commence.

The recent controversy over the prolonged detention of minors involved in the #EndBadGovernance protest is a case in point.

The Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 provide for the use of community service and other custodial measures to administer criminal justice in Nigeria.

Provision of community service in ACJA

Specifically, Section 460(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) of 2015 provides that, ?The court may, with or without conditions, sentence the convict to perform specified service in his community or such community or place as the court may direct. A convict shall not be sentenced to a suspended sentence or community service for an offence involving the use of arms, offensive weapons, sexual offences or an offence in which the punishment exceeds imprisonment for a term of three years.

?The court, in exercising its power under subsection (1) or (2) of this section, shall have regard to the need to: reduce congestion in prisons; rehabilitate prisoners by making them undertake productive work; and prevent convicts who commit simple offences from mixing with hardened criminals.?

The ACJA further grants the chief judge in every judicial division the powers to establish a community service centre headed by a registrar, assisted by suitable personnel who supervise

The implementation of the community service orders given by the court.

NCoS, High Courts, Interior Ministry responsible ? Ministry of Justice

Reacting, the secretary of the Federal Justice Sector Reform Committee in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Felix Ota-Okojie, said the non-custodial measures had to be implemented by the institutions saddled with the responsibility for that.

He located this with the Nigerian Correctional Service, the High Courts and the Ministry of Interior.

?As you are aware, the NCoS has copious provisions to support non-custodial measures,? he said.

On the role of non-governmental and civil society organisations, he said they were expected to scale up awareness on the implementation of non-custodial measures through the available funding avenues at their disposal.

He added that in cases where they need to apply non-custodial measures as sanctions, they would do so as provided in the ACJA.

Non-custodial measures required ? CG

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, called for the implementation of non-custodial measures through the harmonisation of the ACJA and the Nigerian Correctional Service Act to remove existing bottlenecks.

The CG was represented by the Director of Corrections, Ezekiel Kagah, at the opening of the one-day stakeholders? engagement summit on the effective implementation of the ACJA and the official signing of the practice directions on remand proceedings, guidelines and monitoring framework for the implementation of remand proceedings in Abuja recently.

He said the delay In the conclusion of criminal cases impacted on public confidence in the judiciary.

?We owe our citizens a fit and fair legal process, which will serve as a clarion call to all actors in the criminal justice system that is from law enforcement and judiciary to fulfill their duties with efficiency and due diligence,? he said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Interior confirmed on its website that the Service has the mandate to conduct non-custodial measures like overseeing the administration of non-custodial measures, ensuring proper enforcement of non-custodial sentences passed by the court, recommending quality officers to be deployed for the administration of the non-custodial measures, coordinates and maintain synergy between the NCoS and the judiciary for the smooth administration of the non-custodial services and coordinates, and maintain synergy with all stakeholders in the administration of non-custodial services.

Billions needed to implement non-custodial measures ? Akinseye-George

Reacting, a foremost member of the various reform judicial committees and the director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS), Professor Seyi Akinseye-George, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said the implementation of non-custodial measures in the FCT to be duplicated by other states would cost billions of naira.

He noted that some form of non-custodial sentencing was being implemented in Lagos and Oyo states for offences with less than three years of imprisonment, where offenders were ordered to mow the grasses around the court, hospital or other public places for six months.

He added that an amendment bill was before the National Assembly for both the ACJA and the Nigerian Correctional Service Act on non-custodial sentencing provisions.

There are conflicts in provisions, penal laws ? Lawyers

Reacting, a lawyer, security and justice expert, Ogechi Ogu, bemoaned the fate that has befallen the ACJA community service provision despite it being well utilised to punish offenders of the COVID-19 restrictions in the FCT and Lagos in 2020.

Among the challenges, she said the late adoption of the ACJA by many states after it was enacted by the National Assembly for the FCT by a state like Borno and others and its absence in existing penal laws, affected its effective implementation.

She said, ?Unfortunately too, for both the FCT and the states that have enacted this law, there exist a challenge hampering the implementation of non-custodial measures of which community service is a core component.

?That is the problem of conflict in provisions of the substantive laws, which are the Criminal Code Act/Laws of Southern Nigeria and the Penal Code Act/Laws of the Northern States.

?This became an impediment as some judicial officers blatantly refused to grant non-custodial sanctions, claiming that it is not provided for in the punishment sections of the substantive laws, which provide for imprisonment and fines.

?These and the issues around funding, awareness creation and the requisite acceptance of such measures as community service by the society were the challenges that slowed down implementation.

?There is also the big challenge around conflicting provisions in the ACJA 2015 and the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019, which explicitly provided for the different components in non-custodial measures in Section 37 and mandates the NCoS to implement these forms of sanction.

?The NCoS Act mandates the Correctional Service to implement while the ACJA provides that probation officers for the supervision of offenders in the community should be appointed by the chief judge of the state?.

Similarly, Hameed Ajibola Jimoh, a lawyer, said the challenge with the provision of community service was due to the lack of inclusion in the penal code.

He said that based on the provision in the ACJA, it would be the duty of chief judges to establish community service centres headed by a registrar.

He said defence lawyers should also include a request for community service during their plea of allocutus in court for it to be awarded the same way it had been seen during the COVID-19 period, adding that the penal code does not contain community service provisions as found in the ACJA.

Criminal justice commercialised ? CURE-Nigeria

Reacting to the issue, the president of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errant (CURE-Nigeria), Sylvester Uhaa, said the lack of institutionalisation of non-custodial measures as provided by the law is because of the lack of political will and the commercialisation of the criminal justice sector.

?After two decades of work in the criminal justice sector, I have come to realise that it is one of the biggest industries and commercial sectors in Nigeria. Those making a living from this sector are frustrating reform efforts,? he said.

He said there was no political will to implement reforms because of strongly vested financial interests of those in position to implement reforms, which has made the prison population to remain high in spite of all the efforts by successive administration to lower it because ?the more people in prison, police cells, the more money for those who benefit.?

?Secondly, the NCoS Act, 2019 didn?t receive the public scrutiny it needed to receive before it was passed. It was hijacked by a cabal, which excluded many stakeholders that would have added value to the act, all for personal gains.

?For example, why would you ask the president instead of the interior minister to establish the national committee on non-custodial measures?

?Why would you say that death in prison should be reported to the state comptroller of corrections instead of the National Human Rights Commission, an independent body, in line with the Mandela Rules and international best practices?. (Weekend Trust)

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