New Telegraph

Decongesting Correctional Centres

  • ‘Virtual Court policy’ ll curb prison congestion’

 

TUNDE OYESINA writes that lawyers have thrown their weights behind the recently introduced Virtual Court policy of the Federal Government aimed at decongesting Correctional Centres across the country

 

Some senior lawyers have applauded the latest move by the Federal Government at decongesting Correctional Centres across the country through the launching of a Virtual Court Facility at the Kuje Correctional Centre.

The lawyers while baring their minds on the issue at the weekend expressed deep concerns at the level of congestion at the various Correctional Centres across the country.

 

Data from the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) on the summary of inmate population by convicts and persons awaiting trial as at 4th October, 2021 revealed that the facilities hold 37 percent more inmates than it was originally designed for. Overcrowding has however been defined as the percentage of the occupancy rate that is greater than 100 percent.

The percentage of inmates held by a correctional facility defines the facility’s occupancy rate and how overcrowded it is.

 

The NCS data shows that Nigeria’s correctional centres have the capacity to hold 50,083 inmates but they currently hold 70,056 inmates. When the total prison population is expressed as a percentage of the capacity figure, the occupancy rate is 137 percent and based on definition of overcrowding, Nigeria’s NCS centres are overcrowded by 37 percent.

 

The data also revealed that of the 70,056 inmates at the facilities, 50,822 are awaiting trial. This equates to roughly 73 percent of the total, while only 19, 234 inmates have been convicted, accounting for 27 percent of the total. As a result, at least 7 out of 10 Nigerian prison inmates are serving time without being convicted.

 

In a related development, available records indicated that inmates population at various custodial centres across the country presently stands at about 74,127 out of which 52,226 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs). Most of these custodial centres are presently housing inmates beyond their capacities and the overcrowded facilities pose a potent threat to the health of the inmates and the public in general. In view of the present circumstances, there is need for an urgent step to bring the situation under control.

 

Launch of Virtual Court Facility

 

Performing the launch in Abuja, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said the deployment of virtual court sitting technology in Correctional facilities was aimed at ensuring speedy dispensation of justice and decongestion of custodial centres in the country.

 

The AGF said the project was initiated to ensure speedy hearing and determination of urgent and time-bound cases, using digital platform. He added that the launch at the Kuje Correctional Centre was to test run the policy as such facility will be replicated in other Correctional Centres across the country .

 

“This system would equally ensure speedy dispensation of trials in line with Section 36(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which provides that every person shall be entitled to fair hearing within a reasonable time.

 

“It would also eliminate the issue of difficulties in conveying inmates to court and would further ensure the safety and security of inmates and law enforcement officers.

“We are no longer constrained by mobility, space and time in the justice delivery on account of accommodation of the virtual court sitting facilities and deployment of incidental technology. “Notably, our justice system is founded on the constitutional principle of fundamental rights to fair hearing that requires the court to hear and determine cases in public and the physical presence of the suspects or parties in court.

However, the Virtual Court Proceedings are in compliance with the provisions of Section 36(3) of the Constitution, which provides for public court sitting or hearing.

“This Virtual Court Proceedings meet up with the expectation of the Constitution and are not private hearings but open to the respective counsel involved, the litigants (inmates) and the general public at large”, Malami said.

 

Leticia Ayoola-Daniels, Acting Director, Administration of Criminal Justice and Reforms Department, Federal Ministry of Justice, who also doubles as Secretary of the Presidential Committee on Correctional Reforms and Decongestion, expressed hope that these virtual court facilities will feed into the already existing virtual court sittings that are in the judiciary, and by so doing, fast track the dispensation of court cases while saving costs on security and mobilization of accused persons.

 

In a goodwill message, UNDP Nigeria Country Representative, Lealem Dinku, said the programme was designed to support the court system to accelerate the hearing of Sexual and Gender- Based Violence/Harmful Practices/ Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights/Violence Against Women and Girls civil and criminal cases, and will allow judiciary to hear cases without transporting inmates to physical locations. Dinku added that the project will help to reduce backlog and the time spent in pre-trial detention while also helping to reduce administration and operational costs.

 

FG’s Prerogative of Mercy Committee

 

Prior to the the launch of Virtual Court Facility, the Federal Government had inaugurated the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy. The Committee is headed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN). Other members of the Committee are:

 

 

Representative of Inspector General of Police (IGP); a Permanent Secretary from the office of the SGF; Representative of the Nigerian Prison Service; Representative of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC); Representative of Jama’atu Nasril Islam; Representative of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and four eminent Nigerians.

 

The Committee has a four-year life span and it is charged with the responsibility of assisting President Muhammadu Buhari to discharge his constitutional responsibility of pardoning deserving prisoners and ex-convicts and to work towards decongesting prisons nationwide. Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, while inaugurating the Committee in Abuja said it would go a long way in bringing about a drastic reduction in population of prisoners in prisons across the country.

 

“The responsibility of the Committee is sensitive and enormous. The purpose for its constitution and its guiding principles must be completely adhered to so as not to elude the process.

“The Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy is an administrative committee established to assist the president to discharge his responsibility of granting pardon to deserving inmates and ex-convicts”, he said. Mustapha added that the inauguration of the Committee will kick-start the processes leading to a nationwide prison visits and consequent recommendation of eligible ex-convicts and convicts for presidential pardon.

 

The committee’s terms of reference are statutory as contained in Section 175 (1) of the Nigerian Constitution which states that: “The President may – (a) grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions;

 

(b) grant to any person a respite, either for an indefinite or for a specified period, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence;

(c) substitute a less severe form of punishment for any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence; or

(d) remit the whole or any part of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence or of any penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to the state on account of such an offence.

 

“The powers of the President under subsection (1) of this section shall be exercised by him after consultation with the Council of State. The President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State, may exercise his powers under Subsection (1) of this Section in relation to persons concerned with offences against the army, naval or air-force law or convicted or sentenced by a courtmartial”.

Aregbesola’s plea to Govs

In another bid to decongest correctional facilities, Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, had in July this year urged state governors to sign death warrants of the 3,008 condemned criminals waiting for execution, especially those whose appeals have been exhausted and were not mounting challenges to their convictions.

 

Aregbesola, who spoke at the inauguration of the Osun State Command Headquarters Complex of the Nigeria Correctional Service in Osogbo, stressed the need to bring the cases involving condemned inmates to a close.

 

Aregbesola while urging states to share in the burden of decongesting custodial facilities by constructing holding centres, noted that all the states needed to do was to build the facilities to specification and set aside a sum for the maintenance of inmates, while the NCS provided the personnel to man and run the facilities. He said:

 

 

“There is a need for state governors to summon the will to do the needful on death row convicts. There are presently 3,008 condemned criminals waiting for their date with the executioners in our meagre custodial facilities. This consists of 2,952 males and 56 females.

 

“In cases where appeal has been exhausted and the convicts are not mounting any challenge to their conviction, the state should go ahead, one, to do the needful and bring closure to their cases; two, set some others free on compassionate grounds, especially those who have grown old on account of the long time they have been in custody, those who are terminally ill and those who have been reformed and demonstrated exceptionally good behaviour; and three, commute others’ sentences to life or a specific term in jail”.

 

Lawyers react

In the meantime, some senior lawyers have described Federal Government’s Virtual Court policy as a welcome development, saying it will go a long way in decongesting the nation’s Correctional and Custodial Centres while also enhancing speedy dispensation of justice. Reacting, a senior lawyer, Dr. Ody Ajike, said any procedure adopted to ensure that wrong persons should not be in prison should be encouraged.

 

He said: “It is a fantastic development to ensure that linkage between penalogy and prosecution is resolved to deal with proper criminals. It is laudable”. On his part, an Abuja-based lawyer, Ubaka Obiefuna, said the launching of virtual court facility is a beautiful initiative viz-a-viz decongesting the prison.

“The over-population of our prisons is one of the knotty issues in our legal system that is yet to be tackled squarely.

 

“In the time past, some former Attorneys General and Ministers of Justice like Chief Mike Akpamgbo, Bayo Ojo, Kanu Agabi and Akin Olujimi, engaged private lawyers with the intent to drastically reduce the number of inmates in our prisons. They constituted a prison decongestion tribunal which was more or less a special court being ‘sui generis’ in nature.

 

The aim was achieved at the time but for the fact that it was not consolidated by the succeeding ministers, hence, the congestion of our prisons today.

 

“The virtual court as launched by the Attorney General will definitely aid prison decongestion because of its speedy trials and prosecution of cases. This virtual court no doubt is a needed intervention that will minimize the police pattern of dumping accused persons in prison without having any plans of charging them to court.

 

“Also, petty and very minor cases can be speedily, summar ily or ‘suo moto’ be dispensed or dismissed by the virtual court without going through the normal rigours of criminal proceedings.

 

“To a large extent, the virtual court will be very helpful in prison decongestion if sustained and done without twisting the anticipated intention of the Attorney General”, Obiefuna said.

 

A private prosecutor, Tosin Ojaomo, opined that the launch of the virtual court facility is a welcome development because it implies that there will be less movement of inmates and enhanced inmates accessiblity to our justice system without making physical appearance in court.

 

He said: “As a private prosecutor, I wholeheartedly welcome it but my concern is that Nigeria is a country where maintenance culture is a problem. Apart from that, the issue of implementation is another challenge, any country where power supply is unstable, you can hardly have a functional gadgets that relies on power supply.

 

“I think the Nigeria Bar Association has a fundamental role to play in ensuring the success of the project. Branches of the NBA all over Nigeria should monitor the implementation in their respective jurisdiction, it is time to have a case tracking system in Nigeria.

 

For example, in Ghana, where I also practice, there is a system where all criminal cases in court are monitored to prevent delay in justice delivery”. A rights activist, Ernest Aguiyiome, equally lauded the virtual court policy, saying it is a good one.

 

”The introduction of Virtual Court in prison as part of our criminal justice system will help to decongest Correctional Centres. This will equally ease all the logistics problems prison officials do encounter in bringing the inmates to court for trial. Several times, prison vehicles are not in good shape, a times, the vehicles don’t have fuel .

These are factors that contribute to delay in trial atimes. “But with this new facility in place, all these will be a thing of past, trials will be concluded on time, fate of inmates will be known, lawyers and prison officials will carry out their work with ease”, Aguiyiome said.

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