Underage imprisonment, sign of a broken society – Punch

Nigeria is a cruel place to live in, a minefield for both adults and minors. Some minors, who were released from the Badagry Prisons, Lagos, on August 1, have discovered this bitter truth. Many of them were locked up for years on flimsy grounds before they were mercifully set free by Olufunmilayo Atilade, the Chief Judge of Lagos State. Their tribulation is a sign of a broken society that needs to search deeply on how to reform vulnerable child offenders.
In total, Atilade granted 80 minors amnesty, telling them to “go and sin no more.” The beneficiaries are just at the Badagry Prisons alone. It means there may be other minors languishing hopelessly behind bars across the country. A 2013 country report by the United States estimated that “6,000 children are locked up in Nigeria’s notorious jails and detention centres.” Unfortunately, nothing much is being done to reverse the noxious trend.
The released minors are aged between 12 and 17, a period that their character ought to be moulded on a strong moral foundation. They were accused of spurious offences like running away from school, wandering and breach of public peace. Their punishment was to be locked up with hardened criminals. This defeats the objective of reforming delinquents.
The treatment these minors were subjected to could have changed their psyche permanently. Upon release, they appeared emaciated. This reinforces the impression that the kids gained nothing in prison. Primarily, the intendment of the penal system is to serve as a sanctuary to reform offenders, especially when they are young. However, the Nigerian prison system is a breeding ground for hardened criminals. Therefore, locking up minors with dangerous convicts is counterproductive and homicidal.
Almost all societies are battling with teenage offenders, but a Human Rights Watch report said the number of children in juvenile detention centres in the US fell consistently from 1996 to 2011 by modifying the laws. It said a 2014 law in California offered early parole for convicted child offenders who were under 18 at the time of a crime. HRW noted that the United Kingdom, Finland and Malta have agreed with it to end or sharply reduce the detention of migrant children, while France and Israel now limit the detention of migrant children to “exceptional circumstances.” Japan, Taiwan, Panama and Turkey have enacted laws prohibiting the detention of children.
Nevertheless, the UK model is worth giving a try. Policy-wise, it treats children aged between 10 and 17 differently when they commit a crime by sending them to youth courts. The convicted ones are sent to Special Secure Centres. As of 2010, there were just 150 of these violent minors throughout the 10 centres. The centres are protected by CCTVs, pagers and other technological tools. Every day, the children study twice, do homework, vocations and sports.
In comparison, Nigeria is sending minors to adult prisons. This is risky. Nigerian prisons are begging for a comprehensive overhaul, not only for the inmates, but also for the society, which is careless about how ex-convicts acquire more notoriety while serving their terms. A glimpse into Nigeria’s prisons shows that they are harsh, short of food and medical aid.
Pregnant detainees are delivered of babies there because there are no specific programmes to cater for such scenarios. Overcrowded prison cells are a major source of discontent for both the inmates and the warders. In 2016, the Nigerian Prisons Service said that out of a total figure of 63,142 inmates, 45,263 or 72 per cent were awaiting trial persons, while just 17,897 or 28 per cent were convicts. The two cells for condemned criminals in the Kano Prisons, for instance, were built for 20 persons. As of January 2016, they accommodated 92 inmates.
This irritates inmates, leading to riots and jailbreaks. Between 2010 and 2016, the Koton-Karfe Prison in Kogi State suffered three jailbreaks. In February 2012, 144 out of 145 inmates escaped from the prison. Prisons in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State and Minna, Niger State suffered jailbreaks in 2014, while a breach occurred in the Nsukka Prisons in Enugu State in 2016. In July 2016, two notorious kidnappers escaped during a jailbreak in the Kuje Prisons, Abuja.
Child offenders should not be a part of this rot. Government needs new, pragmatic solutions. State governments should work with the police, who arrest minors arbitrarily for inconsequential offences. When minors are arrested, they should be tried at juvenile courts. Convicted minors should be sent to remand homes, and not the overcrowded prisons. Convicted minors can also be sentenced to community service.
State chief judges should frequently review the cases in the prisons in their jurisdictions and free child offenders that are being held for misdemeanours. The released children, who might drift back into crime, should be enlisted in educational and vocational programmes. States can collaborate with multilateral agencies like UNICEF to make these centres conducive to human habitation. This is in line with the Child Rights Act, which Nigeria adopted in 2003. That global law is a redemptive tool that government at all levels in the country treat disdainfully.
To lighten the burden of overcrowded prisons, Abuja should engineer the legal reform of Item 48 in the Exclusive Legislative list, which vests the power on prisons management in the government at the centre. Willing states can then run their own penal centres to suit their preferences, while others might cede their powers to Abuja to run it for them.