Institutional reforms and the development of Nigeria Prisons Service, 1999 - 2007

Abstract

Nigeria as a country experienced over twenty nine years of military rule. Consequently, the Nigeria Prisons were nothing less than a concentration camp where democrats, civil rights activists and some social deviants suffered. The emergence of civilian rule in 1999 with promises both to restore human rights and the rule of law and to reform the justice system of which the prisons are part of, led to the appropriation of billions of naira. This paper provides an overview of the reformation of Nigerian Prisons service and its reforms using documentary and primary sources of information with a view to assessing the extent of its consistency with international standard and its impact on both prison inmates and the institution itself. The paper discovered that the reforms centred on administrative and logistic conveniences with complete disregard for structural changes, inmates conditions and international standards. The reforms failed because of the class character of the prison inmates and the objectives for the establishment of prisons in Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that Nigerian Prisons should pursue a structured pro-inmates’ international standard reforms as a negation to the interest of the ruling class. In this lies the genuine development of Nigerian prisons. Key words: Prisons, reforms, democracy, development, institutions.