No fewer than 68 percent of prison inmates are awaiting trial, the Prison Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), has revealed.
PRAWA, a body championing the reform of the Nigeria Prison service disclosed to journalists in Enugu at a joint press briefing with the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) that out of 71,642 prison inmates in various prisons nationwide as of Monday 26th February, 2018; 49,001 inmates representing 68.4 percent are on awaiting trial, while 22,641 representing 31.6 percent are convicted inmates.
It further revealed that out of 22,641 convicts, 2, 322 inmates are on death row.
The Executive Director of PRAWA, Dr Uju Agomoh, who gave this revelation said that it was shocking that during the survey on ‘Nigerian Prison Survey Reports’, it discovered that some awaiting trial inmates had spent over 12 years in prison waiting for trial and that it had negatively impacted on the prison service.
She said that the reports of the survey were presented to stakeholders in Abuja on February 1, 2018 and subsequently to the National Assembly.
One of the key recommendations of the reports according to her “is the urgent need to develop framework and clear indicators for assessing and understanding the ‘true’ cost of imprisonment including the cost of excessive use of pre-trial detention, in terms of both the direct and indirect costs.
“The assessment of these costs on the basis of its impacts on the prisoners, ex-prisoners, their families, the primary and secondary victims, the prison officers, other criminal justice agencies, the community, the States and the country as a whole”.
Agomoh said that the survey findings indicated that most of prisoners found were from poor backgrounds as reflected in the level of education and type/status of employment of their parents.
She said that it was necessary for the media to join as a key player in promoting institutional reforms for access to justice, rehabilitation and social development of prisoners, ex-prisoners, torture victims etc.
She noted that there was a need for the government to establish prisons for young offenders, usually called bolster homes, in all states in the federation.
“This is to avoid a situation where under-aged children will mixing up with adult prisoners.
“Pregnant women, nursing mothers, elderly and people with terminal illnesses needed such special homes and treatment as well,” she noted.
Speaking in collaboration with PRAWA, the Public Relations Officer of Prisons, DCP Francis Enobore, commended the Federal Government for taking adequate steps to provide adequate support to prison staff.
He said with the on-going structural and administrative reforms, the issue of constant jailbreaks would now be a thing of the past.
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