Nigeria enacts a new law on prisons

With the passage of the Nigerian Correctional Service Bill into law the Prisons Service changes name to Nigerian Correctional Service.

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the new law into force on 14th August, 2019. The new law is intended to enable some critical reforms in the Nigerian prison system far beyond a mere change of name.

It underscores the global movement away from the emphasis on punishment to  correction as the guiding philosophy behind incarceration of people who violated the criminal laws of the country. When the court finds a person guilty and hands him over to the prison authority, the expectation of society is not for punishment. Instead, the idea is that the person is handed over to the prisons authority so that they would reform him to a point where the person can return to society as no more a danger to society.

The emphasis on punishment is outdated. It depicts the society as vengeful and vindictive, when all it should be seeking for is to reform the criminal. Emphasis on correction is positive and forward looking. It is focused on what the person becomes at the time he is released back to society, while to focus on punishment is to focus on what happens to the person  during the time he is incarcerated without regard to the aftermath.

Also, the new law which repeals the Nigerian Prisons Service Act, has other reform agendas in mind, including the decongestion of prisons (now to be called corrections). One way the government seeks to achieve decongestion is the  new rule that condemned criminals who have served up to 10 years will have their sentences committed to 10 more years. This is automatic removal of executions, unless the person is executed within 10 years of sentencing. The way this rule is intended to work is not yet clear. DPA News needs more time to study the new law.

One nagging problem about prison congestions has nothing to do with the prison law. Rather, it has everything to do with a judiciary that is inept, corrupt and dysfunctional. Over 80% of Nigerian prison inmates are awaiting trial. These are people the judges refused to grant bail in clear violation of the Constitution of the country. There will be no change in the rate of prison congestion unless reform is aimed on how to reduce the number of awaiting trial inmates.

With the signing, the Nigerian Prisons Service will now be called the Nigerian Correctional Service, and prisons shall now be called Corrections.

The picture here is

Comptroller General,               Nigerian Correction Service,             Mr. Ja’afaru Ahmed