The prison is an important part of every society, because it keeps custody of offenders in the society.
Not only that, it harbours the legally interned; it tries to reform and rehabilitate these criminals and thereafter, reintegrates them back to the wider society as law-abiding citizens. Just as crime is a functional phenomenon in every society, so is the importance of prison to national and global development.
The role of prison in national and global development does not only include providing a safe society devoid of felonious and phoney elements, it also provides a mechanism for reformation, rehabilitation and resettlement of scofflaws. Suffice it to say that if the prison is well harnessed, it can serve as a veritable tool for economic prosperity vis-à-vis agricultural development. In Nigeria, however, prison as an institution has been relegated to the background hence it is in a downswing mode.
The condition of prisons nationwide is in very deplorable, coupled with the fact that government and the society in general view the prison institution as a place for pariahs. The penal institution, due to decades of neglect and decay, is on the verge of collapse. The prison system in Nigeria is saddled with decayed and decaying infrastructure, low staff morale, poor funding, external attacks and aggression, and societal neglect. The question is: why is the prison institution in this poor condition? My humble answer, after a careful observation of the elements in the Criminal Justice System in Nigeria, is the lack of an independent commission that oversees the prisons alone.
Of the three arms of the Criminal Justice System, only the Prison is devoid of a commission.
This may account for why prisons in Nigeria are lowly regarded. Hence, I am strongly convinced that if the Federal Government creates a separate commission for the prison service, the story of the service will change for good. The proposed independent Prison Service Commission will have the mandate to appoint qualified and competent persons to hold posts or ranks in the prison service. They will also fix and regulate conditions of service, including salaries, allowances and other benefits of officers and men of the service. The would-be commission would also ensure the general well-being and administration of the prison service and its maintenance of high state of efficiency. It will also be saddled with determining the nature of disciplinary powers to be exercised over officers of the service, and the manner and circumstances in which they are to be exercised.
When established, the commission will not be responsible to the Minister of Interior, but to the president. It would be made up of people of integrity and professionals in penal administration. Like the Police and Judicial Service Commissions, the proposed Prison Service Commission would address some of the teething challenges bedevilling the prison system which hinders it from achieving its mandates.
Ugwuoke Kelvin Abuchi,
Jos
