ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study was to find out the challenges
facing prison reforms in Nigeria,
using the maximum security prison which locks only male prisoners and the
female security prison, both of which are in Kirikiri, Lagos.
Fifty respondents which include both the staff and the
inmates of the two prisons (female and maximum security) prisons were sampled.
The respondents views on the challenges facing prison reforms in Nigeria were
sampled. The questionnaire on the challenges facing prison reforms in Nigeria
developed by the researcher herself was used for the measurement of these
challenges based on the quality of staff or prison personnel, how well equipped
the Nigerian prison is, the building structure, the society and the criminal
justice system.
Ninety-eight percent (98%) of the respondents were of the
opinion that the above factors were major challenges facing prison reforms in Nigeria. There
were five hypothesis generated in the study.
They were tested using simple percentages and frequency
counts. The study found among many other things, that the quality of staff is a
determinant factor in prison reforms. It was also found out that the criminal
justice system, societal attitude towards ex-prisoners and the under-funding of
the prisons pose a lot of challenges to prison reforms.
However, it has been ascertained that these factors encourage
over-crowding in the prison and not giving room to proper reformation of
prisoners and their eventual rehabilitation as affirmed by research findings.
Therefore, there is the need for stakeholders to make
conscious efforts to reform the Nigerian prison service.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Pages
Title page
Approval page
Certification i
Dedication ii
Acknowledgement iii
Abstract iv
Table of Contents v
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Background of
the Study 1
1.1 The Statement of
the Problem 4
1.2 Purpose of the
Study 5
1.3 Statement of
Hypothesis 6
1.4 Scope of Study 6
1.5 Study Population 7
1.6 Method of Data
Analysis 7
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature
Review 8
2.1 What is Prison 9
2.2 Establishment of
Prison 11
2.3 Historical
Overview of the Prison 12
2.4 Purpose of
Imprisonment 15
2.5 The Ideal Role
of the Nigerian Prison 17
2.6 Education 19
2.7 Industry and
Vocational Training 20
2.8 Agriculture 20
2.9 Medical and
Health Care 20
2.10 Historical Trends
in Nigeria
22
2.11 The Challenges
Facing Prison Reforms in Nigeria
24
2.12 Summary 34
2.13 Summarily 35
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Introduction 36
3.1 Research Design 36
3.2 Sample and
Sampling Procedure 36
3.3 Instrumentations 37
3.4 Administration
of Instrument 37
3.5 Method of Data
Analysis 37
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Presentation of
Data and Analysis 38
4.1 Demographical
Data 38
Table I: Sex Analysis
(inmate) 38
Table II: Age Analysis (inmate) 39
Table III: Marital Status (inmate) 39
Table IV: Level of Education (inmate) 40
Table V: Class of Prisoners Analysis 40
Table VI: Length of Time Analysis 41
Table VII: How many prison Experience? 41
Table VIII: Initial Reaction on entering Prison 42
Table IX: Vocational Training Analysis 42
Table X: Analysis of Perception of State of Mind
on Leaving the Prison 43
Table XI: Analysis of Perception of Nigeria Prisons
as
a Place for Change 43
Table XII: Analysis of Prisoners’ Perception of Prison
Staff. 44
Table XIII: Analysis on Alterative Means of Imprisonment 44
Table XIV: Sex Analysis (Staff) 45
Table XV: Age Analysis
(Staff) 45
Table XVI: Level of Education (Staff) 46
Table XVII: Marital
Status (Staff) 46
Table XVIII: Staff Cadre (Staff) 47
Table XIX: Length of
Service Analysis 47
Table XX: Job
Description Analysis 48
Hypotheses Testing 49
Summary 50
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 Introduction 54
5.1 Discussion 54
5.2 Conclusion 54
5.3 Implication of
the Study 57
5.4 Recommendations 59
Bibliography 60
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 BACKGROUND
So much said in recent times
about prison and the need to reform.
They, as much as insinuated
that the prison do not perform their function at present as expected, and if
any rehabilitation is accomplished at all, it is affected not because of
imprisonment but other factors. The Nigeria president olusegun obasanjo in his
July 2005 television monthly chat opened that the Nigeria prison services are
not the job they arrogated to themselves.
There is no doubt that the modern
prison is enmeshed in crises of identity whatever is for it is for one clear
and single purpose said Lionel fox (1952 p. 15). According to neiderhofer (1981),
a prison was formerly an institution establish purposely for punishment.
Custody and control. In the report and recommendations on the classification of
prisoners and the grouping of prison and lock –ups on function basis (1975) it reiterated “when emphasis was on
the early primary aims of society, the job of the prison officers was easy. It
was purely and simply custodial. Prisoners were subject to hard and rules.
Criminal captive so indeed they were regarded as, retrograde and were so
treated. This crisis might have gradually crept in when penologist now strove
to meet a new concept and goal of treatment and rehabilitation. No longer is
the criminal regarded as enemy of society someone who needs great attention and
assistance. Li wand explain that the zeal for prison reform was aroused after
the American Revolution by the Quakers and famous Philadelphian as Ben Franklin
and Benjamin Rush took the leadin setting up penal institution based on new
concept of justices and perfectibility of man. John Howard the magna carta of
prison management has this idea that “if you made prisoners think they would
see the error of their ways’’.
In 1955 the united nation
unanimously adopted the rules on the prevention of crime and the treatment of
the offenders. It state inter –alia. ‘’The purpose and justification sentence
of imprisonment or similar measure derivative liberty is ultimately to protect
society against crime’’. This can only be achieved if the period of
imprisonment is used to ensure that the offender leads a law abiding and
self-reliant life when he/she eventually returns to the society.
To this end, the prison
institution needs to utilize all the remedial, education, moral, spiritual and
other forms of assistance available. This should be applied according to
individual treatment needs of the prisoners. According to Sir Alexander
Paterson, a prison administrator, the first duty of the prison warden is to
ensure at least that a man emerging from prison is no more deprived than when
he entered it.
In a study carried out by the
National Commission on law observance and Enforcement in 1931 in Federal and
state prison in the united state, it was reported that the present system of
the united state of American had failed. The commission based its conclusion on
finding that the men who were released were not better equipped to accept an
honest role in the world than before commitment. Leiwand (1972) put it thus,
institution founded upon high hopes and loftly aspirations during the
mid-nineteenth century and early twentieth century to solve the problems of
crime… are failing us as we approach the twenty-first century
Following the earlier reforms the
walnut street jail become the first penitentiary in the united state which separated
hardened criminals from first time offender and civil offenders. This was
widely copied by other prison. Leiwand (1972 p. 27) reiterated that “despite a
promising beginning the walnut street jail was not the great success for which
its founder had hoped. It was doomed to go down to defeat because of welter of
politics, incompetent personal, overcrowding, idleness and inadequate financial
support’’
Similar circumstances have
hampered the Nigerian prison service which has been described as a “modern day
dungeon according to west idahosa who was elected to represent Edo North
Federal Constituency in the house of Representative in Nigeria (April
2006 pg 5 and chesa (Jan 2006 pg B/17) simply described it as hellish”. This
condition he attributed to overcrowding, inadequate feeding, poor sanitary and
medical facilities illegal detentions, inadequate recreation, vocational
facilities and poorly designed facilities.
“It is no secret that prison
infrastructure in the country is a shambles.…. Prisoners are held in
dilapidation building, some of them erected, many years ago, prisoners like
Bauchi construction in 1820, Yola: 1905, Sokoto: 1908, Kano: 1903 among others are begging for both
structural and aesthetic renovations’’ PRAWA (March1999 pg 6).
Ahamadu (1971) observed that a
prison is said to be crowded not only when it holds more person than its rated
capacity (that is the capacity determined by architects and planners) but also
when the ratio between personnel and inmates exceeds a certain proportion. Quinney
(1979) is of the view that even when treatment programmes are provided they are
as dehumanizing as imprisonment.
The Nigerian prison service in
their view has been performing their functions to the best of their ability and
equipment. According to the report and recommendation on the classification of
prisoners… it is a mistaken belief that no classification can be done without
the participation of qualified graduate psychiatrist, psychology and sociology.
They can be substituted with qualified psychiatrist Nursing Superintendent.
According to Giwa Osagie “our prison system is reformative and not punitive.
The process of imprisonment start from the time a person is arrested, remanded,
charged, tried and convicted, He, however, admitted that the process of justice
is so slow that many inmates awaiting trial have to remain under painful
suspense for very long before their fate is decided ‘’The mental agony and
physical strain undergone before his conviction and the deprivation of liberty
would seem to be enough punishment” he said.
According to the federal
government’s policy on the reorganization of prison (1971), the Nigerian prison
service had been providing the inmate with social, educational and skills with
a view to making him employable on release.
In spite of the claims of the Nigeria prison, recidivism rate can be accounted for
by the ways in which treatment programmes are being implemented. In Giwa
Osagies view “our prison are very badly
planned and cannot serve modern requirements.’’
1.1 THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
Various studies have been carried
on prison and imprisonment. Baly (1852) carried out a study on the effect of
imprisonment. A similar study was carried out by Flanagan (1980) on the pains
of long-term imprisonment. Leiward (1972) carried out its study on problems of
American society (PRISONS) and palmer (1973) carried out its study on the
constitutional right of the prisoners. Baly was of the view that imprisonment
has a serious effect on the psyche which if not well treated or handled could
drive one to insanity. Flanagan (1980) found that several inmates commented
that prison lived in a vacuum’’ Leiward (1972) in his study observed that
during mid- nineteenth century and early twentieth century to solve the
problems of crime……….are failing us as we approach first century Palmer (1973)
opined that though imprisonment has limited certain prisoners rights. The
prisoner still have some rights if when violated is able to civil or criminal
offence.
The above studies carried out so
far by these foreign research though boarders on imprisonment none carried out
in details a study on the challenge facing prison reforms/reformation of
prisoner.
In Nigeria, Mgbemena (1983) Research
on the psychology of imprisonment with emphasis on adult prisoners in Benin City. This study
was limited to Benin City.
Akomolsfe (1987) though carried out a research of reformation of prisoners. Its
sample was limited on Ado- Ekiti them in Ondo State
and the study did not talk on the challenges facing reformation of prisoners.
Nzemeke (1993) research on inmates, perception of Ilorin prison as a means of rehabilitation.
Though the work of Akomolafe
(1987) Mgbemena (1983) and Nzemeke (1993) were undertaken in Nigeria, they
did not address the issue of the challenge facing prison reforms.
The following are the research
question which this study intend to find answers to:
1. Does the quality of staff affect the reformation of
prisoners?
2. Is the prison ill equipped to carry out
the role of reforming the prisoners?
3. Does the building structure of the prison
affect the reformation of the prison?
4. Classification of prisoners in prison:
how far is it practiced and to what extent does this affect the reformation of
prisoners?
5. What role do the inmates play in the
achievement of reformation?
6. What is the role of the other arm of
criminal justice system in prison reform?
1.2 PURPOSE OF
THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is
to find out the challenges facing the reformation of prisoners in Nigeria. It is
the purpose of this study to find out:
1. If the prison service are actually
playing their roles as reformers.
2. Are the inmate actually reformed at the end of the day?
3. What are the public views of the role of
prison service as reformers?
4.
What
effect of does the building structure of the prisoners have in the achievement
of reformation of prisoners?
5.
If
the activities of the other arm of the criminal justice system (the police and
the judiciary) affect the achievement of reformation of prisoners. The hue and
cry of the Nigeria
public is that the prison dehumanizes the inmates, such that, the inmates serve
their imprisonment and depart without any noticeable change, and perhaps they
come out worse than they want in. The inmates spend much of their time planning
their next crime or improving on their criminal techniques. This, they
attributed to the deficiency in the prison’s role as reformers. However, there
seems not to be any study in Nigerian to prove this, thus, it becomes necessary
to carry out this research to find out the challenges facing prison reforms in Nigeria.
It is the belief of those
research that this study would contribute significant information with
empirically backed data which will be useful to the official and administrator
of the prison themselves and other students wishing to carry out similar
research and who endeavour to read through this project.
A knowledge of the challenges
facing the prison reforms will be useful to the criminal justice system and the
government in implement new panel policies and the classification and planning
of necessary reformatory treatment for inmates.
1.3 STATEMENT OF
HYPOTHESIS
1.
The
quality of staff is a challenge facing prison reforms in Nigeria.
2.
The
prison is ill equipped to carry out the role of reforming prisoners.
3.
The
building structure of the prison affects prison reforms.
4.
The
society plays a role in prison reforms.
5.
The
activities of the other arms criminal justice system (the police and the
judiciary) play a role in the challenges facing prison reforms in Nigerian.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
The scope of this study will be
limited to the inmate in maximum security prison, Kirkiri, Lagos who have spent one year and above, it is
believed by the research that these categories of prison have the experiences
the prison environment and have undergone most of the treatment in prison. And
the staffs who have associated with the prisoners and are able to identify the
problems.
1.5 STUDY
POPULATION
For ease of response to the
instrument, the sample will be composed of 400 inmate and a hundred staff of
the service (maximum and female prison Kirkiri) It is note worthy that the
figure chosen for the inmate sample is so because the inmate population is
unpredictable as inmate are received and released regularly.
As regards the staff, these are
in three categories: the superintendent cadre, the inspectorate cadre and the
Assistant cadre. The superintendent cadre are the administrative staff while
the inspectorate and the prison assistant cadre are rank and files.
The maximum security prison
population is about a hundred and fifty staff and the female prison are about a
hundred and one staff.
1.6 METHOD OF
DATA ANALYSIS
This research intend to use the
analysis of variance to test the hypothesis.
This is because this hypothesis
seeks to compare the means of three groups. According to Adana (1990) using the analysis of variance
of compare the mean of three or more group selected at random from a given
population is testing the truth of a logical statement about the types of
variance of the groups.
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