Benjamin Okorie, “Criminal Justice Administration and Panic of Prison Correction in Nigeria”, Journal of Law and Judicial System, Volume 1, Issue 2 (2018)
*…+ Apparently, the personality, status and ethnic group to which an offender belongs to do influence the outcome of cases in Nigeria criminal justice system. As a matter of fact, most offenders that are sentenced to jail are in most cases from the lower strata in the society in terms of financial capability and social connectivity. This is share nepotism. Also, some judges are found of abuses of the judicial process in the name of using discretion in a case. The use of discretion by the judges at times, which is or are wrong discretion(s) do bring about miscarriage of justice against or in favor of the offender. After all the guarantees of fair trial in the constitution prescribe certain minima of fairness and justice below which a judicial forum must not descend in the discharge of its duties (Dada & Dosunmu, 2015). However, despite the provisions and good intentions of the constitution in ensuring justice delivery, Nigerian criminal justice system is still degenerating. *…+ (p. 3)
PRAWA (Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action) and NPS (Nigerian Prison Services), Nigerian Prisons Survey Report, Volume 2 Summary: Socio-economic Characteristics of Prisoners and Impact of Imprisonment In Nigeria (1 February 2018)
[…] The research focused on assessing the socio-economic characteristics of prisoners and their families, and the impact of imprisonment on the prisoner, prisoners’ family and the prison service.
This is aimed at providing some information that will help identify strategies for effectively addressing problems of prisoners, ex-prisoners, the prison service and the criminal justice system in general. In addition, it will help us understand what specific factors to address to help reduce the likelihood of offending behavior, reduce level of distress on prisoners’ families, and facilitate reintegration.
Assessing the impact of imprisonment presents a key challenge as many of the factors to consider are often not able to be quantified or there is lack of available or accurate data to arrive at such quantification. Therefore this Report cannot claim to have exhaustively identified or attempted to identify the comprehensive cost or impact of imprisonment. It has only identified some factors that exemplify the impact of imprisonment on the prisoners (including remand prisoners/prisoners in pre-trial detention), on their families, and on the prison service
The findings indicate the following:
There is a strong Nexus between Poverty and Imprisonment: Most of the prisoners are poor, with low education and employment status and they earned little prior to their incarceration.
The survey findings indicate that prisoners found in prisons are more likely to have little or no education and poor employment level. Most of them were from poor backgrounds as reflected in the level of education and type/status of employment of their parents.
[…] The data indicate that prior to their prison custody, 1.17% earn less than 1000 naira (2.9 USD)1 a month. 6.68% earn 5,000 naira (14.3 USD) or less per month. 16.67% earn 10,000 naira (28.57 USD) or less per month. 76.36% earn 50,000 naira (142.86 USD) or less per month. 14.4% earn between 50,001 naira and 100,000 naira (above 142.86 USD to 285.7 USD) per month, 7.57% earn between 100,001 naira to 500,000 naira (i.e. between above 285.7 USD to 1428.57 USD) per month. 1.07%
earns above 500,000 naira and 1,000,000 naira (i.e. above 1428.57 USD to 2,857 USD) and 0.6%
earns more than 2,857 per month. Thus only about 23.64% earn above 50,000 naira (142.86 USD) per month prior to their prison custody.
[…] The socio-economic impact of excessive use of prison custody affects the prisoners, their families and the prison service
[…] A considerable number of them are breadwinners prior to their incarceration. A very high number of the prisoners are single especially in Enugu prison (70%). For Ikoyi and Kano Central prison slightly above 50% were single while slightly above 40% were married. This has implications on their spouses for those married and for the singles on the prospects of future marriage and child birth especially on the female prisoners. Majority of them were either self-employed or salary workers thus more vulnerable to the impact of loss earnings due to their incarceration and disruption of education for those who were students. The majority of respondents in Enugu Maximum and Kano Central prisons were self-employed before incarceration constituting about 64 percent and 65 percent respectively. While 43 percent of the respondents in Ikoyi prisons were self-employed at the time of data collection as high as 48 percent were salaried workers. About 12 percent of the respondents in Enugu, 7 percent in Kano and 3 percent in Ikoyi were students. Less than 1 percent of the sampled inmates in the three prisons were retired.
[…] Prisoners’ families are also affected by the imprisonment of their family members. For example in 2016, the total number of prison officially documented visits for two prisons in 2016 is 73,085 (43,075 for Enugu Prison and 30,010 for Ikoyi Prison). For 2017, the figure is 19,567 visits for Ikoyi Prison and for Enugu prison the total is 28,253 visits as at August 2017. Thus for both prisons the total as at August 2017 is 47,820 visits.
[…] The number of visits the prisoners’ families undertake to prison has economic, social, psychological and physical cost to them. These include the risk and cost of travelling to and fro the prison as well as cost of the money and other items that they have to bring to the prison on each of these visits, and the costs of activities foregone to enable them visit the prison. There are also costs of having their breadwinner incarcerated and the impact of this on their standard of living. This excludes other costs not assessed in the survey such as the cost of hiring a lawyer.
There are also costs to the prison service both in terms of administration, logistics, security and staff time. For example the impact of prison staff time - this affects those directly processing for the arms squad, gate, records, welfare officer, chief warder, etc. When one considers the impact of other factors such as number of prisoners reporting sick and number of prisoners to be transported to court Monday to Friday every week, it thus gives a glimpse to the magnitude of the volume of work and the pressure on the human and material resources of the prison service.
[…] High number of the prisoners reported sick and there is evidence of substance use both prior and during incarceration.
About 17% of the respondents reported that they had used hard drugs prior to their prison custody.
Some of them admitted that they were still using hard drugs in prison representing 3%, 9% and 14%
in Ikoyi, Kano Central and Enugu prisons respectively. When asked about the type of drugs used, the majority (85%) reported that indicated that they used Marijuana (Cannabis).
[…] The number of prisoners that reported sick in 2016 were 364, 1056 and 1451 prisoners in Enugu, Kano Central and Ikoyi prisons thus with the exception of Enugu half or more than half of the total prison population reported sick. The records also show that all the three prisons had few health workers. This include one doctor each and 2-3 nurses in each of the prisons. In one of the prisons (Ikoyi prison) there was no Lab Scientists and no pharmacist.
[…] Most of the prisoners reported no history of previous conviction and many indicated that they did not commit the offences which they were charged or sentenced for.
Some of the prisoners reported that they have been in prison custody before. Of those that reported history of previous incarceration a high number of them reported that they stayed one year or less.
Of those that indicated that they had previous incarceration, 74.8%, 89.8%, and 92.16% in Enugu, Kano and Ikoyi prisons respectively reported that the duration of their previous incarceration were one year or less. The huge number that indicated that they had no previous convictions and the high number of those that spent one year or less in custody makes a case for the need to rethink the
degree at which we use pre-trial detention especially for those with no history of previous offending or/and imprisonment.
[…] Between 19% and 27% of the respondents in each of the prisons reported that they committed the offences they were charged or sentenced for, while a much higher proportion indicated that they did not commit the offence. In Ikoyi prison, about 90 percent of the respondents reported that they had not been convicted for any previous offence while those that claimed they had not been convicted before in Enugu and Kano Central are about 85% and 71% respectively. While one needs to be cautious in the weight to place on these figures given that there are biometrics data capturing of offender/prisoners, it is still worth noting that about 10% to 29% of the inmates indicated that they have been convicted of previous offence. Of those that reported that they committed the offence some of the reasons that made them commit the offence includes the following: anger, economic factors, peer influence, influence of drugs, mental illness/’spiritual attack’, etc. […]
United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, Thirty-first session, 5–16 November 2018, Compilation on Nigeria, Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (27 August 2018)
[…] IV. Implementation of international human rights obligations, taking into account applicable international humanitarian law
[…+ B. Civil and political rights
1. Right to life, liberty and security of person27
[…+ 25. OHCHR had received confirmation that in areas affected by Boko Haram, young men were not only exposed to the risk of being targeted by Boko Haram, but also of being arbitrarily arrested and detained by the army, police or civilian vigilante groups, if suspected of being Boko Haram members.31
27 For relevant recommendations, see A/HRC/25/6, paras. 135.68–135.70, 135.72–135.73, 135.75, 135.80, 135.82, 135.106–135.112, 137.10–137.13, 137.22, 137.24 and 137.28–137.30.[…]
31 A/HRC/30/67, para. 60.
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2019 – Nigeria (17 January 2019)
*…+ Conduct of Security Forces
In August, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo dismissed DSS Director General Lawal Daura for the unauthorized sealing of the National Assembly. The National Human Rights Commission reported that under Daura’s three-year leadership, the agency repeatedly violated rights, including carrying out unlawful arrests, prolonged detention without trial, and torture of detainees. Osinbajo took the action while he was acting president. *…+
Amnesty International, Nigeria: Submission to The United Nations Human Rights Committee 126th Session, 1-26 July 2019 (2019)
*…+ 5. RIGHT TO LIFE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COUNTER-INSURGENCY EFFORTS IN THE NORTH EAST (ART. 6)
Boko Haram has killed thousands of civilians in the north east of the country. For example, more than 4,000 civilians were killed by Boko Haram in attacks in 2014 alone.15 In its 2017/2018 Annual Report, Amnesty International stated that the armed group continued to carry out attacks, resulting in hundreds of deaths. It carried out at least 65 attacks causing 411 civilian deaths and abducted at least 73 people.16 Amnesty International’s research has also shown that inadequate security and alleged withdrawal of troops have sometimes led to the death of civilians in the hands of Boko Haram,17 while impunity and non-accountability have continued to fuel the conflict.18
In the course of security operations against Boko Haram, there have been serious human rights violations. Previous Amnesty International research has documented that in the course of security operations against Boko Haram, Nigerian military forces have extrajudicially executed more than 1,200 people; they have arbitrarily arrested at least 20,000 people, mostly young men and boys; and have committed countless acts of torture. In the same vein, thousands have become victims of enforced disappearance while many have been killed in military detention through starvation, extreme overcrowding and denial of medical assistance.19 […] (p. 8)
15 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2014/08/nigeria-gruesome-footage-implicates-military-war-crimes/
(accessed on 14 May 2019) 16 https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/nigeria/report-nigeria/
17 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/02/nigeria-deadliest-boko-haram-attack-on-rann-leaves-at-least-60-people-murdered/
18 https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AFR4494812018ENGLISH.PDF 19 https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AFR4416572015ENGLISH.PDF
Francisca Anene and Laura Osayamwen, Remembering the Forgotten: Benefits of Prison Education for Awaiting Trial Inmates in Nigeria, Pan-Commonwealth Forum, Edinburgh (9-12 September 2019)
*…+ Characteristics of the Typical ATI [awaiting trial inmates]
The factors examined above may apply to all ATIs regardless of particular circumstances. However, economic and social factors predispose certain classes of accused persons to greater disadvantage and a higher possibility of indeterminate remand in custody. As Table 1 clearly shows, the typical Nigerian prisoner is male. Available literature also indicates that he is likely to be socially/economically disadvantaged, at the prime of his life, illiterate/semi-literate, and unemployed/self-employed at the lowest occupational ladder (Tanimu, 2010; Ogunleye, 2014;
Emeka et al, 2016; Orjiakor et al, 2017). These characteristics have implications for the possibility of criminalisation of ATIs or recidivism of offenders.
*…+ The study findings align with Tanimu (2010) and PRAWA (2018) that majority of prisoners are economically disadvantaged. Only 38% of the total study sample had retained a lawyer. Of these, only 10% were able to pay their legal fees themselves. While majority (70% – 80%) depended on their social network to meet this obligation, others (about 10%) relied on legal aid or pro-bono legal services usually afforded to the indigent. These figures indicate that majority of ATIs are likely to be indigent, unemployed or semi-employed. With respect to education levels, the study findings indicate that less than 27% of respondents who were charged with bailable offences were aware of the possibility and conditions for applying for bail before arrest. Different levels of bail awareness in the three states align with adult literacy rates per state.
*…+ Implications of Characteristics for Criminalisation of ATIs or Rehabilitation in Prison
In Nigeria, an accused person’s economic ability significantly influences his experience of the entire criminal justice process including arrest, bail, speed of trial and length of custodial sentence. An economically viable accused person is likely to engage the services of competent lawyers who will ensure a speedy trial with short adjournments, admittance to bail on favourable terms, regular appearance in court and a light sentence upon conviction. These factors go on to influence a convict’s prison experiences, possibility of early release, reintegration into society and stigmatisation. Bearing these factors in mind, it is likely that ATIs who spend up to 47 months in remand without conclusion of trial or final judgement (UNODC 2006) lack the economic ability to influence the criminal justice process. The socially disadvantaged status of the typical ATI is also clear from the level of impunity with which ATIs rights are violated. Hence, 59.7% - 84.9% of all the ATIs surveyed were in custody for bailable offences. Furthermore, 50% - 63% were not afforded the chance to apply for bail (UNODC 2006). These are clear breaches of section 35 of the 1999 constitution. *…+ (pp. 4-5)
OHCHR, Nigeria must act urgently to stop forced evictions and address grossly inadequate housing, says UN expert (24 September 2019)
*…+ The Special Rapporteur also expressed concern that people living in poverty and homelessness are being rounded up by the police, detained, and fined or imprisoned for vagrancy. She noted that persons with disabilities are often held in punitive detention centres against their will, in deplorable conditions. *…+
23. Rise in implementation of Sharia law, including being imposed against those not of