Can Nigerian prisons ever be run like regular commercial entities such that they become money-spinners and high yield investments? US-based Nigerian, Dr. Silas Falokun, believes that it is very possible. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, the Ilesha-born Nigerian who is the Career and Academic Advisor at the Memorial Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at Texas Correctional Centre, Houston Texas, USA, as well as Senior Pastor/Director in charge of South and North America chapter of the Prison Rehabilitation Mission International Inc. (PREMI), a non-governmental organisation promoting the cause of prisons, shares useful insights on how to turn around the fortunes of correctional centres in Nigeria and other African countries in a way that the institutions would serve the greater interest of the populace. Excerpts:
WHAT is the operating environment like at Texas Prison?
By the time you get into the prison in Texas and other parts of the US, they have series of programmes drawn by the government and non-profit organisations to help build and give the prisoners skill sets they can use when they get out of the system. The government partners with these organisations to ensure that prisoners are given the right trainings. And we separate those who have mental problems from those who are really criminals. We have different sections for hardened criminals, first offenders and so on. That is why we have prisons categorised as middle or higher level.
Are there jailbreaks in Texas prison as frequently as we have them here in Nigeria?
Generally, when you talk about jailbreaks in America, it happens once in a blue moon. Believe me, in other states of America when there is a jail break and such offenders get apprehended as is usually the case, they will say bring them to Texas, because we have what it takes to keep them in prison for as long as it is required. It is not for nothing that Texas prison is rated the best prison facility in the whole world.
The Texas prison system is a multi-billion-dollar business that equally cares for the protection and reintegration of inmates, ex-offenders, the unemployed, and all employees of Texas correctional facilities. Also, the Texas correctional institutions generate significant income for the state. Texas is home to over 700 prisons and jails, which require complex infrastructure, skilled workforce and a variety of public and private providers to operate the multi-billion-dollar system efficiently.
In 2018, there were 151,213 people in the Texas correctional system. As of August 2018, Texas Prisons had 134,152 inmates, and 7,433 inmates were in state jails. The Substance Abuse Programme had 3,434 inmates. Texas had 84,495 parolees and 368,871 on probation.
What are the rights and privileges of inmates as well as their codes of conduct in Texas?
Prisoners are prisoners otherwise referred to as inmates or residents serving time for offence committed. They are required to be securely kept in prison, adequately fed, and accessible to medical treatment. If they are indigent, the system must care for their hygiene, toiletries and other necessities. There is provision for special diets for some inmates due to religion, health, etc. Inmates must appreciate the system via good conduct and hard work, and receive appropriate intervention and education. The officers are not to punish them for what they did, and in most cases, correctional officers dealing directly with inmates have no access to their criminal records.
Apart from the USA, do you know of other countries in Africa where prisons are better managed compared to Nigeria?
Comparing the administration of correctional institutions in countries within Africa with those in developed countries will be unfair. In Nigeria, best practices could be recognised in a handful of correctional institutions. But today, the condition of correctional institutions in Africa is there for every stakeholder to judge.
Can you be more specific about the financial standing of Texas prisons?
You see, the correctional institution in Texas fetches the government about $3 billion annually. I can tell you for free that the prison is a kind of lucrative venture around here. When we go in the morning, you can have three good meals as officers, whether you’re in mufti or uniform. They call it ‘All You Can Eat.’ Even at weekends, say Saturdays or Sundays when you don’t want to cook at home, so long as you have your ID, you can just walk in and get yourself a satisfactory meal at no cost to you. How do they do it? They use prisoners, who are now like beasts of burden. But in the course of doing that, the prisoners also acquire skills and trainings that can be valuable to them once they get out of the system.
We have tractors, equipment and lots of tools being operated by our prisoners. And the people at the helms of affairs managing these facilities, to be honest with you, are Nigerians. About 80 per cent of the workers at Texas prison are Nigerians. Only a few are from other countries. In fact, they call us Team Nigeria. And we are not just talking about low-level Nigerians here; we are talking about high and middle level officers involved in decision making.
In my unit, we have about 1, 500 inmates. We have a poultry that produces 74,000 eggs a day, and not all the prison inmates work at the poultry. Here, if the shell of an egg is broken, we thrash it, we don’t eat. Our piggery, cattle farms produce very robust animals. Our prison officers have the best form of pension that can cater for them for their lifetime once they put in at least 10 years in service. Medical facilities are free for the staff and prisoners. Even if you incur a bill of $10,000, all you have to pay is just $25.
One thing is certain: jails are being broken because you would find out that there is a form of pact between the workers, prisoners and other external forces. Just bribe them and it will happen. But if you take good care of your workers and give them good salary packages and all other encouragement and support that they need, they will not succumb to the threat of inducements out there, no matter how juicy and tempting they may be.
Thankfully, the same thing can be done in Nigeria. Currently, I am involved with the Prison Rehabilitation Mission International Inc. (PREMI), a non-governmental organisation promoting the cause of prisons in Nigeria and across Africa. The purpose of the establishment of PREMI is to advocate for the well-being of incarcerated prisoners, render assistance to released ex-offenders, support the provision of benefits that will improve the living standards of correctional officers, provide employment training and job opportunities to African youths, and training and development opportunities to correctional officers and stakeholders across African continent.
Interestingly, we have achieved some modest success with PREMI, especially in Nigeria and partially in the UK, and we are hopeful that the same thing can be achieve on a larger scale. Through PREMI, I believe strongly that we can change the face of our correctional institutions in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general.
Can you expatiate on your involvement with PREMI?
First of all, PREMI was established in 1982 as a non-profit organisation. It has been consistent in advocating the overhaul of the prison system and the reform of the penal system in Nigeria and Africa. It is peopled by individuals and personalities driven by a passion for humanity. The Life Patron of the mission is former president Chief OlusegunObasanjo, and the Chairman of the Governing Council is Oba (Dr.) AdedapoTejuoso, the Osile Oke-Ona, Egbaland. Chief Afe Babalola is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, while the Director General is His Lordship, Bishop Kayode Williams and Hon. Justice Oluseun Shogbola, a retired judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, is a member of the Board of Trustees along with Ondo State governor Mr. OlurotimiAkeredolu (SAN), Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) and my humble self is the Director of International Operations (North, South and Central America) with support from the United Kingdom chapter headed by Reverend James Ademuyiwa, who is also a strong advocate of prisons.
I went into this bit of introduction just to make you see the brains behind PREMI as an organisation that knows what it is doing. So to that extent, you can see that PREMI is not a child’s play. My involvement at PREMI is not by accident after all. As a prison expert working in the best prison facility in the world, I bring to the table a lot of experience and exposure from working at Texas Correction Centre in Houston, USA.
So I can say with all sense of modesty that PREMI has what it takes to turn around the fortunes of our prisons whether back home or even elsewhere within the African continent. Indeed, the PREMI’s approach to prison management is anchored on the Four Rs, namely Reformation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement.
Already, we have a team of volunteers who have been working with me to contribute their quota to the development of our prison system back home here in Nigeria. Our master plan can effectively turn the tide in prison management. It is possible. If we can achieve results in Texas, we can replicate the same thing here. All it takes is commitment on the part of everybody concerned.
You talked about PREMI developing a master plan to transform Nigerian prisons. What is it all about?
In the master plan we developed, there are action plans which we hope to carry out with the partnership of government and other stakeholders. At PREMI, we plan to set up the African Institute for Correctional Rehabilitation and Reforms to be headquartered in Nigeria. It will help to coordinate activities around prisons managed by PREMI either in Nigeria or elsewhere within the African continent.
We believe that to reform the system of administration of correctional institutions and allow for consistencies in the treatment of inmates in correctional institutions in Africa, there is the need for proper training of officers of correctional facilities across the continent. Also, the international community will appreciate the rehabilitation of correctional facilities in Africa. The need to re-orientate the minds of every stakeholder in the operation of correctional facilities cannot be overemphasised.
More importantly, our facilities shall take into cognizance the guidelines entrenched in the Mandela Convention handbook, the Doha Declaration handbook, and reports of investigations of correctional institutions by Amnesty International. The Doha Declaration, adopted after the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice between April 12th and 19th, 2015, highlights the importance of supporting measures to support the rehabilitation and social reintegration of prisoners into the community. The ultimate plan will be the establishment of similar institutions in other African countries. This will be another source of income for the correctional system in Nigeria and other African countries. Besides, we hope to set up Drug and Addiction Intervention Centres. All these and many more are some of the action plans outlined in our master plan which PREMI will implement.
You mentioned earlier that Texas generates about $3 billion annually for government and that Nigeria can achieve similar feat. Considering Nigeria’s peculiarities as a country where a lot of things are not in place. How is it possible to achieve the feat here? Shouldn’t you look at starting small and begin with a pilot project rather taking everything on board at the same time?
The stage we are now in Nigeria is what a scholar called the draft work to maturity. I believe we will get there. But the bottom line is that on the face value it may look like an utopian suggestion, but we know that if we see the concerted efforts of some of the brains behind PREMI as I have mentioned earlier, many of who have been driven by passion and humanity, like Oba Tejuosho, Bishop Williams, Hon. Justice Shogbola, by spending their personal funds, devoting time and energy, with more support out there, a lot can be achieved ultimately.
Of course, to address your question, we can start small with say about 200 inmates and some officials working with us as pilot scheme. Based on our feasibility study, all we need from government is for it to allocate some of the already identified abandoned houses to us to kick off. All we require is to renovate them. After that, the houses are allocated and we get the facility ready. We will take in some of the inmates and carry out some forms of analysis and examination on them that these people are going to be productive.
We can start by housing them in a community that we are going to establish, then we talk with them, seek advice from legal sources, buy all the materials that they will be needing to do some forms of production agricultural services, fishing and all kind of stuff in that house. Then the success we record will now show us as serious-minded folks to the government.
I believe that the government will be reasonable enough to invite us and say what you have done for these people, can you just try it in some other places?
If you do everything for the prisoners you must not forget the officers. So we will take care of the officers that will be hired in our own facilities, so that when they see what we are doing for them, they can get the prisoners into our network.