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Declining Prison Facilities As Impediment To The Rehabilitation Of Offenders
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Accessibility
to education and training is becoming increasingly constrained because
education centres have a limited capacity, and the massive build-up of
prison population has further reduced the availability of education in
prisons (Omoni and Ijeh, 2009). As a result, inmates make use of tree
shades outside their cells and cellblocks as makeshift classrooms. In
prisons such as Shendam, Wase, Lakushi, Agaie, Dekina, Lamingo, MSP
Nassarawa, MSP Omu Aran, Kabba, Ankpa, and Idah in the North Central,
there are no educational facilities (The National Human Rights
Commission, 2012).
Needs assessment and classification of offenders,
which are done to ensure offenders experience progress in specific
programmes, are rarely carried out by the prison administration at
induction due to lack of meaningful programmes. Canton et al., (2011)
assert that evaluation of risks (and needs) of offenders should be a
component assessed prior to a programme being implemented. The absence
of classification of inmates has made it possible for low risk offenders
to be influenced into reoffending by the potent anti-social norms of
their higher risk peers. This has encouraged inmates to get on one
another’s nerves and friction between staff and inmates is quick to
develop (Omorotionwman, 2005). Linked to this is the deteriorating ratio
of staff to prisoners. This further precludes access to some programmes
as a custodial officer needs to be present for the delivery of
initiatives such as Vocational Education and Training (VET). In their
absence these cannot be provided.
The lack of harmony between prison
staff and inmates is a major factor that comes in the way of prison
administration in performing their rehabilitative function. This
accounts for the culture of fragility and explosive social violence (in
the manner of riot) that is re-current and descriptive of Nigerian
prison community over the years. In Kuje Prison, for example, a riot
which occurred on the 28 March, 2007, resulted in the death of two
inmates and left many others injured. Similar circumstances led to at
least two other riots in 2007, one in Kano Central Prison on 31 August,
2007 and the other in Ibadan’s Agodi Federal Prison on 11 September
2007, resulting in the death of almost 20 inmates (Davidson and
Chiemele, 2012: 1).
The availability of rehabilitative facilities,
meaningful programmes and services may not have formed the priority
consideration for the board that is responsible for the review of
prisoners in Nigeria, but they remain a consideration. As noted by
Przybylski (2008), a state of affairs whereby inmates are not provided
an opportunity for self-improvement constantly warns of danger to social
order, because almost every one of them will eventually return to the
community. The result of all this is that inmates come out of prisons
harder and more determined to deal a blow at the society that continues
to punish them so cruelly. The three problems yearly exacerbate one
another: little funds, little reformation, and self-reinforcing spiral
of criminality. The result is a vicious cycle: little rehabilitation of
prisoners, recycle of criminals, increased prison population, higher
cost to tax payers, higher budgetary demands, lesser rehabilitation and
higher rate of recidivism (PrisonWatch, 2000: 4). A continuous cycle of
crime and punishment, otherwise referred to as recidivism, is thus
instituted. Increased level of insecurity frightens away foreign
investors, and tourists; and by implication, foreign capital greatly
needed for national development is denied the nation. Recidivism
contributes to high crime rates which have resulted in loss of lives and
property, thereby threatening public peace, safety of lives and
national cohesion. Also, criminal activities by such recidivists have
made the country unsafe for economic and commercial activities for both
local and foreign investors, sometimes, forcing them to relocate to
safer climes. With such development, the country had lost billions of
Naira which would have been invested in developmental projects that
could benefit the Nigerian citizenry. In recent times, imprisonment is
anchored on the ‘3Rs’ – “principle of Reformation, Rehabilitation and
Re-integrationâ€. However, the increase in the rate of recidivism among
prisoners in Nigeria, which has been documented by studies (for example,
Wilson, 2009; Soyombo, 2009; Agali, 2004 and Chenube, 2009; Abrifor et
al. 2010; National Bureau of Statistics, 2010: 167) calls to question
the effectiveness of the Nigerian Prisons Service in its reformatory,
rehabilitation and re-integrating function. This was reiterate by the
then Controller-General of Prisons that “if the Nigerian Prisons Service
does not process these prison inmates and return them unreformed to the
society, the society will be in for problems†(Ogundipe, 2006), and
this is actually the case in contemporary Nigerian society. As a result,
crime by former inmates alone accounts for a substantial share of
current and perhaps, future crimes in Nigeria.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study was designed to establish whether declining prison facilities interfered with the rehabilitation of offenders in Ikoyi prison, Lagos State, Nigeria. An approach drawing from both quantitative and qualitative methodologies was adopted. A cross-sectional survey and in-depth interview of prisoners enabled the exploration of specific objectives formulated around the purpose of the study, which included the need to know how ‘needs assessment and classification of offenders correlated ... Continue reading---
