.Advocates non-custodial measures to curb prison overcrowding
Prison and Penal Reform Portfolio of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC), has called for greater implementation of the non-custodial measures
Project Coordinator, Prisons and Penal Reforms, UNODC, Munchaneta Mundopa, made this known at a four-day Inmates Classification training for officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service, (NCoS), sponsored by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the U.S. State Department, (INL), and implemented by UNODC in Nigeria, with a focus on 6 prisons in Adamawa, Borno and Gombe States, weekend in Abuja.
She said the training workshop is to promote international minimum standards and good practices related to the classification of inmates, including the treatment of inmates with special needs, women inmates and those assessed to be of high risk organized for mid level officers up to the rank of Controller of Corrections.
“We know that there is a high number of awaiting trial inmates and not everyone who is in prison is supposed to be within the prison so non-custodial measures and strengthening the capacity of the justice actors to look at non custodial measures as well as strengthening the issue of rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders.
“Like we always say if someone is in prison, eventually they will come out if they do not die in prison so they need to be equipped to live life as a law abiding citizen and for the society to be able to accept them back into the society because in often cases we often see that there’s stigmatization that continues when someone comes out of prison, she said.
According to her, “classification, it empowers the Nigerian Correctional Service to tailor rehabilitation plans based on the individual needs and risks of an inmate. So rehabilitation does not need to be a ‘one size fits all’ approach, it needs to be tailored to the specific inmate(s), so that when they go out into the society they are able to harness the power of what they’ve learnt in prison.
“In our partnership with the Nigerian Correctional Service, we realize that while the list of classification systems currently exist, there is a gap in terms of implementation and also in aligning it to the Nelson Mandela Rules.
“Our project is sponsored by INL and is part of the work that we are doing in Nigeria in the space of prison and Penal Reforms
Broadly we refocus on three areas including improving prison conditions, strengthening the capacity of actors to look at alternative ways of dealing with the criminal justice system or alternatives to imprisonment.
She points that the Nigerian system is filled with awaiting trial inmates is particularly high. “For example, currently, we have 69 per cent of the prison population being awaiting trial inmates which is a cause for concern especially also taking into account that the length of the pre-trial detention can vary between three years to seven years.
“So there is need for a holistic approach in terms of how we manage that bringing together not only actors within the Nigerian correctional service but also within the criminal justice system as well so that it will look at alternatives to imprisonment.”
Controller General, NCoS), Haliru Nababa, commended the UNODC for creating training opportunities for personnel of the agency to strengthen the manage of inmates and the criminal justice system.
Represented by Controller of Corrections in charge of Further Studies and Foreign Missions, Cyrus Lakitile, Esq, he said the workshop is essential to the work corrections officers do on a daily basis hence, such training exposures helps them identify gaps in their work and how to improve on such gaps.
“When we are exposed to things like this, we appreciate and accept the fact that there are certain gaps that may need improvement especially being equipped with the knowledge of classification if inmates.
“Classification of inmates is not a new term but because of the dynamics of life, you find improvement and certainly things cropping up internationally which requires upgrading our knowledge and that is just what we have gotten here,” he said.
On specific lessons learnt at the workshop, Lakitile said “I have really learnt new things on classification even though that had been the practice, we classify our inmates according to sex, crime, age and social status among others but for the first time, I just got to know that what we’ve been doing is rather separation and not classification in the true sense of it.
“Classification are two different things though interrelated but classification goes beyond separation, it demands an individualistic assessment of the risk of each inmate before determining the cell category to send any inmate.”
