Addendum toDPA recommendations to National Assembly on justice reform: The courts should bear the cost of transporting prison inmates from correctional facilities to the courts for trial

Currently, the cost of transporting prison inmates from various correctional facilities to the various courts for trials is borne by the Prison Service (Correctional Service).

Who are the inmates that have to be transported to courts for trial? These are people that the courts failed to admit to bail. They are called the untried inmates or awaiting trial inmates. In the earlier part of our report, we have shown that the courts have been largely reckless, irrational and inefficient in the manner they handle bail hearings, which led to the fact that 80% of prison inmates are awaiting trial cases.

The reckless and dysfunctional manner in which judges deal with bail applications has profound cost implications. First, it means that 80% of prison inmates needs to be transported to court at somebody’s expense. This requires each correction center to maintain a fleet of vehicles, personnel and security for the movement of inmates to and from courts each day.

We do not have precise cost figures. But apart from feeding the inmates, the costs of taking them to court is probably the second highest expenditure category in the recurrent part of the prisons budget. Assuming that the cost per annum of transporting prisoners to court in the FCT Abuja area is 500 million naira, cutting in half the number of awaiting trial inmates will save 250 million naira in Abuja alone. That amount can go toward better and improved conditions of service for prison staff, and better facilities for reforming convicted inmates.

Another manner in which the courts impose logistical costs on the prisons is by inordinate delays of trials. It compounds the problem of mishandling of bail applications. That is: the court has remanded a person in prison who ought to have been on bail. And then by failing to try the person in a timely manner, the court prolongs the period of time the person is incarcerated. This compounds the associated costs.

We can extrapolate to the wider problems caused by the failings of the judiciary in this regard such as the general cost of keeping inmates in correctional facilities for a long time. However, we limit our analysis here to the cost of transporting inmates to courts for their trial.

The question here is: Where do you place the cost of the inefficient behavior of the judiciary? At present, that cost is placed on the prisons. It is always inefficient when costs are not located in the same place as the source of the action or decision that gave rise to the costs. Unless the agency that makes the cost decisions is made to bear the cost, the decisions cannot be efficiently made. If the FCT judiciary is made to bear the 500 million estimated annual cost of transporting inmates from prison to courts, the attitude of the courts toward bail applications will change dramatically. If the cost of transporting inmates to courts were made to compete with the cost of welfare and vacation and medical allowances of judges, the judiciary will immediately reassess its attitude toward bail applications and the length of time it takes a court to conclude a standard case.

Currently, some prisons don’t have vehicles to take inmates to courts. Keffi prison, for instance, takes inmates to courts only twice a week. The courts are not aware of this. So, on a day the prison is not able to bring an inmate to court, the judge will just adjourn the case to next month. But the date of the next adjournment may be another day the prison will not have a vehicle. This could go on for six months without the prisoner ever being to court. But assuming it is the court that arranges the transportation of the inmate, this sort of waste will likely not occur.

DPA therefore suggests changes that will be necessary to make the courts bear the cost of bringing to court the person they could not release on bail. When a person has not been convicted, he belongs to the courts and not to the prisons. It should be the responsibility of the courts to bring the person from prison to court and back until the end of his trial or until the court grants him bail. This is what obtains in some other countries including Britain.

This recommendation calls for a redefinition of the relationship between the courts and the prisons. Currently, the prisons are blaming the courts for congestion and costs of transporting inmates to courts, and the courts are blaming the prisons for either not bringing the inmates to courts for trials or for not bringing them on time. This situation will change if the courts bear the cost of its actions and decisions in this regard. This will lead to greater efficiency and improved justice in Nigeria.

By the Due Process Advocates Foundation (DPA).