Founding Executive Director of Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, (PRAWA), Dr Uju Agomoh, has called for more funding of non-custodial measures of prison sentencing to discourage overcrowding and promote probity.

She made the appeal at a media briefing to unveil activities for PRAWA’s 30th anniversary to be held from December 1-6 in Abuja.

Agomoh said the incorporation of non-custodial measures into the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Act 2019 was to ensure that minors and petty offenders could get non-custodial sentencing such as community service, which holds a lot of advantages.

She observed: “I do not think that the government has invested enough funding into the non-custodial sector, and it is one of the very painful aspects for us at PRAWA.

“When we pushed for the incorporation of non-custodial measures into the then Nigerian Correctional Service Bill, which later became the Nigerian Correctional Service Act of 2019, we felt that a lot has been solved, because we felt that those minor offenders would now have a place to go, and the government would see the need to save resources, as it does not make sense to waste money feeding offenders in jail when they can work in the community, which holds many other advantages.”