Overcrowding in Nigeria’s correctional centres has become a burden on the country owing to poor administration of the justice system. MICHAEL AKINADEWO examines the issue, and calls for reform.

On a windy Tuesday afternoon, at the height of protests in the country in 2020, Akaewehe Paul Chiedu was going home after the day’s job as a trainee in a printing press on Alafia Street, Sari Iganmu area of Lagos.

Trying very hard not to spend extra money since it was already mid-month; he decided to walk the long journey to Orile Iganmu from Alafia busstop. By the time he crossed the link bridge at Suru-Alaba canal, he saw a mass of protesting youths. He tried to avoid them, but as he moved closer to the youths who were vandalizing both private and public property, some policemen who were deployed to keep peace arrested him.

They accused him of being part of the protesting youths. Despite his plea, even with his identification card, he was arrested and handcuffed. He was taking to the police station and after some days he was taken out of cell to be remanded.

He was locked up for months and by the time he was released, he left Lagos for his village in Oko, Delta State. But what he saw in prison amazed him. The place was over crowded and many were languishing in prison awaiting trial.

Another celebrated case is that of a Beninese living and working in Nigeria as a tiler. He was arrested on proxy while returning from work on October 24, 2020, four days after the infamous Lekki shooting in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The police accused him of being one of the hoodlums who vandalised properties in the state during the #EndSARS protests. Despite showing the security operatives his working tools, he was driven to Lekki police station. Days later, he was moved to Area A Command, Lagos Island, known as the Lion Building.

There are many Nigerians who have spent years in prison without bail or trial. In fact, some officials have in the past raised concerns over the menace of the increasing number of awaiting-trial inmates being held at correctional facilities.

The data from the correctional authority reveals that the country’s facilities have the capacity to hold 50,083 inmates but they currently hold up to 70,056.

According to a report released recently by the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), no fewer than 53,836 inmates in the 253 correctional centres nationwide are awaiting trial as of December 18, 2023.

The service’s spokesperson, Abubakar Umar, who confirmed this report, said the country’s correctional facilities currently house 77,849 convicted and awaiting trial convicts.

According to Umar, the total number of convicted detainees is 24,013. He went on to say that there were 23,569 convicted males and 444 convicted females.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) correctional centre statistics data, no fewer than 65 facilities are overcrowded in southwest Nigeria. The data shows that the same situation is obtained in the south-south of the country and sadly, all the facilities in the southeast are overcrowded too.

“Statistics show that 69 per cent of the inmates in custodial centres are actually awaiting trial while 31 per cent are convicted inmates,” Umar said.

Legal experts, who spoke with The Guardian, point to systemic issues, including underfunding and inefficiencies within the judiciary, as major contributors to the problem. Corruption, lack of accountability, and ethical lapses further erode public trust.

They said the Nigerian judiciary is flooded with thousands of cases, resulting in a significant strain on the system’s capacity to handle and resolve them in a timely manner. This backlog has led to extended waiting periods for inmates, who may spend years awaiting trial before their cases are even heard.

President, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Uju Agomoh, lamented that the Nigeria criminal justice system is not effective enough. She said here are many criticisms of corruption and inefficiency within the entire criminal justice system, which undermines the fairness and effectiveness of the system and keep persons who are innocent in detention

Also, she added that the justice system is slow and inefficient, with many cases taking years to come to trial and many suspects languishing in overcrowded custodial centers for extended periods of time.

In her words, law enforcement officers seem undertrained and under-equipped to handle the complex challenges of modern crime. There are several cases of procedural errors, difficulty in effectively investigate and prosecute crime, leaving many cases unresolved, she said.

“Non-compliance with provisions of law aimed at addressing the problems in delay in the administration of justice including those aimed at providing oversight and checks and balances for the different aspects of the administration of justice.

“Some of these laws include the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, Administration of Criminal Laws applicable in different states, (these includes those aimed at setting time limits for the process), Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019 (example s. 2(1)(d)), which is on the provision of institutionalised, systematic and sustainable mechanisms for addressing problem of high number of awaiting trial inmates.”She said the lack of adequate funding and resources for the judiciary also plays a significant role in the delays in delivering justice to inmates.

“The Nigerian justice system is underfunded and understaffed. There is also poor utilisation of available resources, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of capacity to handle the volume of cases. This results in lengthy delays in scheduling and conducting court proceedings, manual recording of court proceedings, and lack of adequate support for court witnesses further exacerbate the backlog of cases and prolonging the wait for justice.

“In addition to institutional factors, there are also systemic issues within the Nigerian legal system that contribute to the slow pace of justice for inmates. Corruption, inefficiency, and a lack of accountability and ethical values within the judiciary and law enforcement agencies have been cited as significant barriers to delivering timely justice. These factors undermine public trust in the justice system and contribute to the prolonged detention of inmates without resolution of their cases.

“Addressing the issue of delayed justice for inmates in Nigeria requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses the root causes of the problem. This includes an overhaul of the country’s judicial and law enforcement systems to improve efficiency, accountability, and transparency.

“Adequate funding and resources should be allocated to the judiciary and duly monitored to enhance its capacity to handle the volume of cases and expedite the resolution of inmates’ cases.

“There is need to combat corruption and promote ethical conduct of all operators of the criminal justice system (including law enforcement agencies, prosecutors. judicial officers, and correctional officers); alternative measures such as pre-trial release programs, diversion programs; and the use of technology in court proceedings can help alleviate the backlog of cases and expedite the delivery of justice to inmates.”

Agomoh suggested the need to focus more on the community and desist from overuse of imprisonment especially with respect to awaiting trial persons and unconvicted persons.

“We need to invest in preventing individuals from committing offences in the first instance. Target families and communities in need and promote positive behavior, alternative to violence, job creation, ethics and value orientation, etc. We need to also target support on offenders to prevent reoffending behaviour.”

Adding to that, she stressed the need to increase judicial capacity by investing in training and hiring more magistrates, judges and legal personnel to handle the caseload, addressing the backlog of cases.

Also, enhance legal aid services to ensure that individuals have access to representation, reducing the likelihood of prolonged pre-trial detention. Thus, should include the use of pro bono lawyers and paralegals, enhanced coordination and synergy between the legal aid council offices at the State levels and the State ministries of justice, offices of public defenders.

Others she mentioned include, review and update outdated laws, streamline legal processes, consider alternatives to incarceration for certain offenses, implement effective case management systems to track and manage cases more efficiently, reducing delays in court proceedings and Promote community policing strategies to prevent unnecessary arrests and ensure law enforcement focuses on high-priority cases.

A human rights lawyer and activist, Malcolm Omirhobo, said there are 253 Correctional Centers in Nigeria, spread across states in Nigeria though established and managed by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The Correctional Centers are of different categories such as, Maximum, Medium Correctional Centers, Satellite Centres, and Farm Centers etc. There are only three All Female Correctional Centers across country, He said.

Omirhobo explained that in terms of issues of inmates and conditions of detention, one thing that of great concern is the high number of awaiting trial inmates and usually congestion of correctional facilities.

“It is not all correctional centers that are congested; some of them do not intern inmates up to their capacity. Mostly, correctional centers in urban areas are mostly affected.

“Challenges of congestion in custodial centres would have been managed if most of the inmates were to be convicts, this is because the Controller General has the powers to transfer convicts from one custodial Center to another.

“This is not easily applicable to awaiting trial persons because of challenges that may arise in terms of logistics of taking them to court.

“This is why there is strong advocacy for speedy dispensation of criminal justice.” He noted that congested centres intern inmates beyond their capacities in some cases up to 250 per cent and above.

Omirhobo added that congestion of correctional facilities has several human rights implications and can frustrate efforts of Correctional officers at reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders.

Encouraging and supporting the effective implementation of non-custodial measures can address challenges of congestion, he said. According to an Abuja-based lawyer, Ogechi Ogu, for every inmate, a core desirable element of access to justice is ability to have his/ her case tried timely and judgment delivered with a determination of guilt or otherwise. However, this element of justice delivery is unfortunately mostly missing in the Nigerian Criminal Justice system.

“It is common knowledge that ordinarily inmates spend very long period of time in custody before the determination of their cases, this is especially the case for those charged with capital Offences.

“This is an anomaly that has been frustrating criminal justice delivery for decades now and has in several ways contributed to failure in the actualisation of the objectives of correctional service.”

She confirmed that there is delay in giving justice to inmates because there is disconnect between what the laws say regarding criminal proceedings and what happens in practice.

She also mentioned that there is challenge of lack of collaboration among agencies of the criminal justice system that sometimes appears to work at cross-purposes at the detriment of the inmates.

“Poor investigation of cases and inability to get proper evidence to support the alleged offence timely could lead to delays, lack of diligence in prosecution of cases is also a huge challenge, the issue could also be in the inability of the suspect to get legal representation and this affects mostly the poor inmates.”

On the part of Ministry of Justice, she pointed that there is also the issue of delay to provide legal opinion on cases requiring this and the court cannot precede on a matter that requiring legal opinion without receiving them.

She identified corruption as another big issue as some agents of the criminal Justice system sometimes in certain cases engage in transactional application of existing laws of the criminal Justice system while inmates’ cases are delayed and they languish in prison. She added that poverty is a huge challenge too where inmates in custody are mostly the poor and needy who lack the resources to defend themselves.

“Some of the criminal laws are tilted against the poor as the provisions criminalise poverty and place poor people at disadvantage as most of the activities these poor persons engage in at public places to put food on their tables are criminalised.

“Now, judging by the high number of awaiting trial persons in custody as against the convicted and given that this has been the situation for many decades now in spite of efforts to make a change, one can actually say that the criminal Justice system has not been as effective as it should be.

The effectiveness can also be judged based on the fact that the high number of persons awaiting trial in custody frustrates efforts at actualising the core objectives of reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration.”

To reduce the number of the inmates awaiting trial, Ogu suggested that pretrial detention should be made a measure of last resort. Not every suspect should be sent into custody, while detention should only be necessary for the purposes of safety and security of the society, she said.

Also, diversion of offenders utilising different platforms of non-custodial measured should be encouraged and Legal Aid Council of Nigeria should be better equipped to provide legal representation to indigent inmates.

“NBA, other civil society organisations should contribute to provision of Probono services to indigent inmates.” Others she suggested include ministries of Justice should deliver on legal opinions timely, incessant adjournment of cases should be reduced; the provision of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act on Bondsperson should be implemented to facilitate easy processing of bail by inmates and encourage granting of bails in liberal terms.