•Community service can be used instead of custodial sentences, to address the problem
FOR the second time this month, the Chief Judge (CJ) of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, released underage inmates, from Lagos prisons. Sixty-two were released on Monday, last week, while 80 were released on August 1. Of note, the chief judge has been very active in taking significant steps to decongest the prisons. We therefore commend her efforts and urge her to do more to decongest the overcrowded prisons in the state.
But, while celebrating the release of the underage prisoners, we ask for greater efficiency in our criminal justice process, to reduce the number of underage prisoners in our prisons. We call for a study of how the underage prisoners got into the prisons in the first place. Is it a failure of prosecution, or a failure of the sentencing process, or even a failure of the pre-trial process that afflicts our country with the so-called awaiting-trial persons in prisons?
Whatever is the case, the judiciary should take advantage of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, to solve the challenges of underage prisoners. For instance, instead of giving custodial sentences, the courts can give community service as punishment. Again, instead of the usual bail conditions on terms that most of the minor offenders cannot meet, the courts could grant bail on very liberal terms, as long as the identity of the offender is secured.
As the report indicated, most of the prisoners were sentenced by mobile courts and they were unable to pay the fines. There is no doubt that we need mobile courts, considering the menace posed by sundry offences like street hawking, environmental offences, dangerous driving and similar offences that need to be dealt with expeditiously. Understandably, the mobile courts were established to contend with the burgeoning population of offenders in a mega city like Lagos.
But, instead of that solution creating another social challenge, like the case of underage prisoners, we urge the CJ to examine the possibility of always providing an alternative non-custodial sentencing, should the convicts be unable or unwilling to pay the fine imposed on them. The state government could consider a more structured communal service so that those sentenced to this form of imprisonment are made to give value to the state. Our suggestion is not to underestimate the challenges posed by such white-collar offences mentioned previously.
But, we also note that the challenge of underage prisoners is not for Lagos State alone. Indeed, the challenge of overcrowded prisons is one requiring a national attention, considering that major components of the criminal justice process are handled by the police and the prisons which for now are federally controlled. Part of the cause of the delays in criminal trials is the inefficiency within those federally controlled agencies.
In many cases either the police prosecutors are inefficient or the prison authorities are unable to bring the accused to court regularly for trial, and in most cases the courts are hamstrung to expeditiously deal with the matter. So, without a synergy between the prosecutors, the courts and the custodial institutions, what we get is increase in the number of awaiting-trial persons, of which the underage are increasingly forming a large proportion.
To save the country the embarrassment of having underage prisoners and those awaiting trial, civil society organisations and government agencies must work harder. Also, the youths should get better engaged and stop their involvement in crimes.
As we are wont to say, there are excruciating economic challenges in the country, resulting in high youth unemployment; therefore, all hands must be on deck to change this state of affairs.
