10 Problems and Challenges of Nigerian Prison

Problems and Challenges of Nigerian Prison – The reason the Federal Government of Nigeria established the Nigerian Prison was to bring rehabilitation and correctional measures to offenders. However, the Nigerian Prison of today seems to be very far from achieving this aim. Information Guide Nigeria

This article looks at the problems and challenges of the Nigerian Prison. Perceived Nigerian Prison problems and challenges include:

• Overcrowding
• Inmates’ ill-treatment
• Lack of infrastructural facilities
• Logistics
• Lack of skills acquisition
• Worse offenders
• Uncategorized inmates JAMB Portal
• Social violence
• Extortion
• Lack of staff accommodation

Nigerian Prisons’ Problems and Challenges

A critical look at Nigerian Prisons reveals that problems abound there. The problems that some leaders found in the Nigerian Prisons when they visited the prisons include:

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1. Overcrowding

Those who built the Nigerian Prisons built them to contain a specific number of inmates. Perhaps they did not know that many people would be committing so many crimes. Today, the numbers of people who occupy those cells are so many that the cells cannot contain them.

The congestion in these cells has caused the death of so many prisoners. To worsen the situation, so many people awaiting trials are put together with these prisoners. Thus, overcrowding is a serious problem in Nigerian Prisons.

2. Inmates’ Ill-treatment

Ill-treatment of inmates is a challenge in Nigerian Prisons. Nobody denies the fact that prisoners are sinners who should atone for their sins by serving their jail terms.

However, restricting their movements does not mean that they should be denied their fundamental human rights. They still have the right to life. Yet, the disease has killed so many of them.

It is appalling that lack of food is a problem in Nigerian Prisons. Poor sanitation in Nigerian Prisons is enough to cause disease outbreaks among the prisoners. Still, there are no medicines for the treatment of the prisoners.

The ill-treatment that prisoners go through is so much that many of them have died in the process. Is it justifiable that inmates should sleep on the bare floor of a filthy cell?

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3. Lack of Infrastructural Facilities

The lack of infrastructural facilities is a problem in Nigerian Prisons. Nigerian Prisons lack buildings hence the overcrowding. Roads leading to many of the Nigerian Prisons are in deplorable conditions. Some of the prisons have no access to electricity and running water that is enough for the inmatesNYSC portal

4. Logistics

The movement of people and materials into and out of Nigerian Prisons is a problem. There are no vehicles in Nigerian Prisons. If the inmates fall sick, there are no vehicles to take them to the hospital.

Some prisoners who would have recovered from sickness have died for lack of proper treatment. They died because there were no vehicles to take them to the hospital nor were there any clinics within the prison yard in which to treat them. Problems and Challenges of Nigerian Prison

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5. Lack of Skills Acquisition

Lack of skills acquisition is a problem in Nigerian Prisons. The prisons were made for the rehabilitation of prisoners. To do this, the prisoners ought to learn new skills. Where the prisoners have already learned a skill, these prisoners ought to improve upon such skills.

In Nigerian Prisons, the reverse is the case. Prisoners in Nigerian Prisons have nothing to learn. They waste away. Were Nigerian Prisons well equipped, some prisoners can learn new things. The problem is that there are no new skills to learn.

The Federal Government should note that idle minds are the devil’s workshops. Making the prisoners idle is worsening their situations while in the prison. This is not good enough for Nigerian society.

6. Worse Offenders

The general condition of Nigerian Prisons is such that makes offenders become worse offenders upon leaving prison. By right, prisoners ought to be in better conditions when they are free from prison. This is so because the real purpose of the prisons was to re-socialize the inmates.

In this way, Nigerian Prisons ought to produce well-adjusted persons in the prison yards. On the contrary, Nigerian Prisons have produced maladjusted people in Nigerian society. Thus, Nigerian society gets worse instead of getting better. Jamb Result

The reason for this is not far-fetched. The completely Nigerian prison system has been broken down because the way the Nigerian Prisons now run is negative. The negative impact that Nigerian Prisons have on prisoners is such that it makes the prisoners worse than they were before becoming prisoners. Duties of A Graphic Designer

7. Uncategorized Inmates

Were the Nigerian Prisons structured according to the Standard Minimum Rule (SMR) for imprisonment, all cells in Nigerian Prisons would have been categorized according to offenses and ages of the prisoners. Contrary to this rule, Nigerian Prisons have old and young inmates and both major and minor offenders in the same cell.

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8. Social Violence

We have the right to say that Nigerian Prisons commit social violence against their inmates. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo described the Nigerian Prisons as being inhuman years ago. Since then, nothing has changed.

Reports credited the Vice President of the Federation as saying, “Due to the apologetic conditions of the prisons, anybody who goes into that place as a human being is coming out as an animal”. Can anything be worse than this? This is the confirmation of what the Nigerian Prisons are by two Nigerian leaders. What else can we say?

9. Extortion

It is terrible in Nigeria that Guards can take bribes from prisoners before they give the prisoners what they want. Worst of all is that these Guards take money from the sick ones before they allow them to receive treatment. Before they see their family members, these wicked Guards take money from them. Duties of an Office Assistant

One inmate told reporters, “If you don’t have money if you come to prison, you will suffer. They collect money from you.” How good is such a report? Thus, extortion is a problem in Nigerian Prisons.

10. Lack of Staff Accommodation

It is appalling that Nigerian Prisons do not have accommodation for their staff. This is a big problem in Nigerian Prisons. How can such staff members do their work effectively without accommodation?

The foregoing proves that Nigerian Prisons have so many problems and challenges. One then wonders what is happening to Nigeria. There is hardly any sector in Nigeria that has no problems.

One problem with Nigerian Prisons is that the Federal Government is not at all talking of any reform in Nigerian Prisons. Some of these problems are against the expectations of the international community.

Nigeria is a member of the United Nations. Yet, it does not try to measure up to the treatment of prisoners as stipulated in its rules.200 Romantic love messages for her

There are international human rights that Nigeria ought to follow. Still, everything that goes on in Nigerian Prisons is against these rights. One thing is clear. Prisoners are still human beings. Therefore, we should treat them as such.

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Conclusion

From all indications, Nigerian Prisons have so many problems begging for solutions.

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