UNDER the Nigeria Prisons Act which makes ‘’comprehensive provisions for the administration of prisons in Nigeria and other matters ancillary thereto”, the process of establishing or classifying prisons are explicitly stated in Section 2 (1) :
2.Establishment and classification of prisons
(1) The Minister may, by order in the Federal Gazette, declare any building or place in Nigeria to be a prison and by the same or a subsequent order specify the area for which the prison is established.
(2) Every prison shall include-
(a) the grounds and buildings within the prison enclosure, and
(b) any lock-up house for the temporary detention or custody of prisoners newly apprehended or under remand which is declared by the Minister by order in the Federal Gazette to be part of the prison.
(3) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, every prison shall be a prison for the imprisonment of prisoners of every description.
(4) The Minister may, for effecting the separation of classes of prisoners or for the training of any class of prisoner or for any other purpose, by order in the Federal Gazette appropriate any prison or part of a prison to particular classes of prisoners; and any prisoner of the class to which any prison or part of a prison has been appropriated rmay law- fully be conveyed thereto and imprisoned therein, whether or not the warrant or order for his imprisonment has been issued by a court having jurisdiction in the place where the prison is situated.
Section 3 (3) on legal custody of prisoners further emphasises the authority and duty of prison authorities to hold inmates in custody, without any room for jailbreaks:
“ Subject to this Act, every superintendent is authorised and required to keep and detain all persons duly committed to his custody by any court, judge, magistrate, justice of the peace or other authority lawfully exercising civil or criminal jurisdiction, according to the terms of any warrant or order by which any such person has been committed, until that person is discharged by due course of law.”
In a joint study titled: “Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) And The Challenges Of Social Welfare Administration: A Study Of Abakaliki Prison”, Dr. (Mrs. C Ndukwe and Dr. Nwuzor Chidi Iroko who are both from the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki attributed the Nigerian prisons’ current inadequacies to the rooted problems in its past.
“The Nigerian prison system suffered from lack of good staff, from poor health and sanitation condition in the prisons and their staffing suffered from lack of good staff, from poor health and sanitation conditions and from absence of any clear idea of the purpose of prisons. The death rate in some of the government’s prisons was so high in 1918 and 1919 that commission had to be set up in 1920 to investigate food and other matters affecting the health of the prisoner sin the southern province.
“ In another, the situation with regards to health and sanitation was the same. There was no provision for guarantee facilities for infected prisoners and it was only on 1926 that cells for isolated cases were built in Kaduna and Jos prisons. Indeed in most northern end southern province provision were not made for the segregation of criminals who are lunatics four other prisons structural conditions particularly nature of the buildings created major problems for the effective classification of offenders. The prison system under Lord lugard which was dual.
“ In structure and it was deficient not only in terms of basic administrative and organizational principles and practice but also in term of the existence of a clear cut philosophy for the treatment of offenders and the observation of human rights.”
Over the years, the provision of welfare services to inmates in Nigerian prisons have been far from satisfactory, many prisons do not meet up to the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners while others violate the right to minimum feeding, allocation, accommodation, privacy, adequate lighting, medical services and the likes as stipulated by rule thirty one (31) of the minimum standards of prison. (Agozino, 2001). These further accentuate the need for offenders to continuously feel motivated to at least attempt a jailbreak.
Recent official statements from the NPS have continued to try give the Nigerian public some measure of reassurance.
“It will be recalled that in the wake of incessant escape of prisoners from some prisons in the country, the CGP, Ja’afaru Ahmed, on August 2, convened an emergency meeting of command officers and 241 officers in charge of prisons across the country to reassess security measures for safe-keeping of prisoners. Although a number of escapees have been recaptured, efforts are still being made to ensure that all the fugitives are apprehended and returned to prison custody.
“The Comptroller-General wishes to assure all officers and men of the Nigerian Prisons Service of his readiness to support and encourage hard work and dedication to duty, but frowns at acts of negligence capable of embarrassing the service and the nation at large.”
The Comptroller-General, who appreciated the collaboration of security agencies, vigilance groups and the public for their support, assured that necessary measures were being put in place to guarantee maximum security of persons in prison custody.
It remains to be seen, how well the NPS can effectively tackle the new problem of jailbreaks. Sophisticated technology being deployed in correctional institutions across developed countries are evidently beyond the reach of the NPS whose 2015 budget – according to dependable sources – hardly did anything beyond routine payment of salaries.