Human Rights Abuses In The Nigerian Prison System
[A CASE STUDY OF NIGER STATE PRISON]

Furthermore, due to the shortcomings of the system, scholars like Odekunle (2000) advocates de-institutionalized methods of punishing offenders by employing alternative ways like compensation in cash and/or kind, reconciliation/restoration, community service/labor, probation, suspended sentence, furlough, etc. It is also, argued that where offenders are publicly shamed, made to return stolen items, nurse their victim to good health deterrence may be more assured than imprisonment and these methods were used in pre-colonial Nigeria, and were efficient and effective (Odekunle, 2000).

There is an assumed inefficiency and ineffectiveness within the criminal justice agencies resulting in prolonged detention awaiting trial which stem from the general neglect of the justice system. There are indications that verbal and physical abuse, and economic losses represent the nature, extent and types of human rights violations detainees encounter while on remand. By and large, the socioeconomic correlates of the victims of abuse show that they are poor, unemployed people with low literacy level remanded in a foreign and judicially technical system that marginalizes them in a costly fashion due to its capitalistic nature.

1.3 Objectives Of The Study

The broad objective of this research is to examine and analyze Human Rights Abuses In The Nigerian Prison System: a Case Study Of Niger State Prison.  In specific terms this research is set out to:

(i) ascertain the extent of prisoners’ rights abuses and its effects on their lives in prisons in Niger State; 

(ii) determine the factors responsible for the abuses;

(iii) examine the measures that need to be taken to incisively and concisely address all problems of prisoners rights abuses.

1.4 Significance Of The Study

This is a research that touches on the rights and freedoms of mainly under-privileged people. Thus, this research when completed and its recommendations implemented, such people will know more of their rights and freedom within the criminal justice system. This is because the research centers on suspects awaiting trial that constitute the bulk of the prison population and are adversely affected by the problems bedeviling the criminal justice system. 

The research will help in highlighting those areas in which people have rights and whose violation by government agencies will not be possible once the people are aware of these rights especially those rights spelt out in the Constitution and other statute books. The research will also awaken the consciousness of people engaged in the dispensation of justice, so that they can cherish and respect the ethics of their profession. Therefore, when completed and the recommendations contained in the study implemented by the relevant authorities, corruption by criminal justice administrators, financial extortion, infringement on human rights and undue harassment and repression meted out to suspects awaiting trial will be drastically reduced if not completely eradicated.

In addition, awareness will be raised among the organs charged with the dispensation of justice regarding the status of detainees awaiting trial.  This is especially to do with the fact that suspects are deemed innocent until proven guilty by a competent judicial court of law. The assumption is that some violations occur due the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the organs charged with the administration of justice. Furthermore, these agencies have over the years been unprofessional and not as independent as they are supposed to be.

The research will be of benefit to policy makers since the study is intended to highlight areas of human rights violation with a view to making corrections.  This will benefit the country since respect for human rights is now a yardstick for international recognition and acceptance.

There are few in-depth studies on prisons in Nigeria. The C.L.O for instance, surveyed fifty-six prisons in Nigeria. The second phase of the C.L.O project concentrated on certain categories of people like women, children, the elderly and the mentally ill. Useful as this empirical data is, it says little about Awaiting Trial Inmates (ATI) in general as attention was on women awaiting trial; this study will bridge this gap. One major revelation of past studies on Nigerian prisons indicates that conditions in these prisons are uniformly bad, and there has been little change for the better.

1.4 Research question

(i) To what extent are the prisoners’ rights abused and its effects on their lives in prisons in Niger State ? 

(ii) What are the factors responsible for the abuses ?

(iii) What are the measures that need to be taken to incisively and concisely address all problems of prisoners rights abuses ?

1.5 Scope Of The Study

The scope of this study covers human rights abuse suffered by detainees awaiting trial in Nigeria. The agencies/institutions covered include of the police, courts and prisons located in Niger state. The population comprised of the justice officials in these agencies/institutions and the detainees awaiting trial in police and prison cells. 

Therefore, the purview of this study rests on what happens from the point of arrest through trial and the role, action or inaction of the principal characters involved in the administration of justice regardless of the motivating factors for the alleged or actual offence. The units of analysis for this study are detainees in the four prisons, the sampled prison authorities and the sampled police officials. When the data generated is aggregated, the units of analysis are reduced to the four prisons and the police stations covered.