ABSTRACT
The study examined the Prison Reforms and management in Nigeria and its impact on the welfare of inmates with emphasis on Enugu prison. Nigerian prisons under the military leadership lost its correctional values and become more or less a miniature hell and far from what is obtained in a modern society. The state of the prisons attracted both national and international condemnation and upon the advent of the fourth Republic, the Federal Government in 2001 initiated a Reform roadmap for Nigerian prisons. Prison congestion was identified as the bedrock of the prison crisis. In this regard, the problem became how to identify among the various reform programmes, the one that most positively impacted the inmates, particularly Enugu prison inmates. The data for the study were generated from primary and secondary sources. From the data generated, the study discovered that the reform programmes to a large extent positively impacted the prison authority and the inmates, particularly Enugu prison inmates. The study concluded that caution should be taken against corruption which is the bane of development in Nigeria and recommended retraining of Nigerian police, crime prevention, community service among others as ways of sustaining the reform programmes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page – – – – – – – – – – i
Dedication – – – – – – – – – – ii
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – – iii
Approval page – – – – – – – – – iv
Abstract – – – – – – – – – – v
Table of contents – – – – – – – – – vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study – – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the problem – – – – – – 3
1.3 Objectives of the study – – – – – – – 6
1.4 Significance of the study – – – – – – – 7
1.5 Scope and limitation of the study – – – – – 7
1.5.1 The scope of the study – – – – – – – 7
1.5.2 Limitations of the study – – – – – – – 8
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 A conceptual overview of prison – – – – – 9
2.1.1 The origin of prisons in Nigeria – – – – – 11
2.1.2 Functions of Nigerian prison service – – – – – 20
2.1.3 Social roles of the prisons service – – – – – 21
2.1.4 The problems of Nigerian prisons system – – – – 23
2.1.6 Nigeria prison today – – – – – – – 28
2.1.6.1 Categories of Nigeria prison today – – – – – 33
2.1.7 The cost of imprisonment – – – – – – 33
2.1.8 Highlight of some contemporary reform efforts in the Nigerian prisons system – – – – – – 35
- Clarification of key concepts – – – – – – 41
- Research procedure – – – – – – – 41
2.3.1 Location of study – – – – – – – – 41
2.3.2 Population of the study – – – – – – – 42
- Method of data collection – – – – – – 42
2.3.4 Method of data presentation and analysis – – – – 42
2.3.5 Sample size – – – – – – – – – 43
2.3.6 Sample Technique – – – – – – – 44
2.3.7 Reliability and validity of measuring instrument – – – 44
CHAPTER THREE:
Background information on Enugu prison – – – – – 46
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND FINDINGS
4.1 Data presentation of the inmates in Enugu prison – 50
4.2 Findings – – – – – – – – – 55
4.3 Implication of findings – – – – – – – 56
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – – – 61
5.2 Recommendations – – – – – – – – 62
5.3 Conclusion – – – – – – – – – 63
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The Nigeria prisons service (NPS) was founded as an institution to correct social deviants, punish and reform criminals and to complement the processes of legal adjudication and law enforcement (FGN, 1990:3). However, the Nigeria prison service is far below the statutory expectations. The prisons are in a terrible shambles, while the congestion rate among the inmates especially those Awaiting Trial persons was so high that the population capacity of 30,000 inmates is hosting over 58,000 inmates, Eze (2010:114). Its infrastructures and logistics have experienced centuries of neglect that have made the prisons at this time to be a moral equivalent of hell, Ogundipe (2006:29). According to Oduyela (2003:1), “conditions prevalent in the Nigerian prisons in the present democratic dispensation are far from the recommendation of the standard Minimum Rules of the United Nations… the consequences are avoidable death and disabilities.
This state of the NPS was equally exacerbated by the dominant military leadership that Nigeria has experienced since independence. The military in its over two decades of political leadership saw the prisons as a punitive institution and thus did not give it any attention as to develop its infrastructures and conditions, Eze (2010:114). More so, Ogundipe (2006:29), noted that the military did periodically visit the prisons but only to make sure that those they had detained were not allowed any measure of comfort. Ogundipe further noted that, the population of inmates under the military became elastic in that the capacity of each prisons did not matter, all detainees had to be held in custody. And if the prisons became tortuous, it served the purpose of the military regime very well. Most of the detainees were held in squalid and congested cells without adequate medical care, food supplies or water and often with no stores at all, thus leading to an outbreak of diseases, environmental degradation, and an increased mortality rate among inmates, Eze (2013:114). The condition of prisons keepers were similar to that of the prisoners. Their salary structure was one of the worst in Africa. Most of the prison branch around the country did not have a single official moving vehicle while the very few that had, found it difficult to maintain them due to poor revenue allocations. The institution, prior to 2000, had no befitting independent corporate headquarters.
The prisons system in Nigeria is one of the most underdeveloped institutions in the criminal justice sector. No new prison has been constructed in more than forty years, Ojukwu & Briggs (2005) except the recent ones constructed by the state governments of Akwa’ibom and Bayelsa which is beyond the period of this study. That not withstanding, the prison population continued to grow. According to Eze (2013:115), “The prison Act of 1945 and accompanying regulations has not been reviewed in over 50 years. It is noteworthy that most of the persons in prison custody who are primarily the cause of the overcrowding are not convicts but ‘Awaiting Trial Persons’ (ATP)”. In affirmation, (Oloyede, 1998:5, Ojukwu and Briggs, 2005:2), provided that, a sampling of about 30 prisons across the country in 1998 revealed that in some of the prisons as much as 98% of the populations of those in prison custody were Awaiting Trial Persons (ATP). Presently, the situation has remained more or less the same. Eze (2003:115), further argued that, “the plight of juvenile offenders and female prisoners is much more than already described because most of the prisons were not built with females in mind, however, they host female inmates. Giving rise to cases of rape, pregnancies and extra-judicial killings”.
Ideally, prisons are reformative institutions, but the case of Nigeria is different. However, upon the country’s return to democratic rule, there were high hopes that the various reforms initiated between 2000 to 2012 will bring about the expected change in Nigerian prison system especially Enugu prison. Therefore the focus of the study is to assess the impact of the various reforms on the inmate of Enugu prison within the time frame of this study.
