By Joy Anyim
Controller of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Lagos State Command, Mr. Noel Ailewon, has urged Nigerians have to guard their freedom jealously and avoid circumstances that may cause them to be sent to prison.
Ailewon gave the advice during a chat with The Nigerian Xpress correspondent, Joy Anyim. He also spoke about life behind bars and the challenges faced by the prison officials.
Why is it that rather than getting reformed, some of the inmates after serving their jail term return to crime?
I am not of the opinion that inmates released from custody are not reformed or they come out worse off. That impression is not good enough. Whatever we have in our custody is the representation of the larger society. The truth is that when inmates are incarcerated, we give them adequate reformation, and by the time they are out, they are better off. Take for example, in most of our prisons in Lagos, we have vocational centres, where inmates, particularly those that have been convicted, are adequately trained. We have the capentry workshop, shoe making, paint making, a lot of things.
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Apart from these, we have the informal and formal education in prison. In the maximum security prison, we have a National Open University (NOUN) Centre.
If you go there, you will see inmates undergoing different courses of study. And just recently, we have some inmates that benefited from amnesty. While in custody, they got attached to NOUN.
Two of them got Ph.D, while in custody and it was based on that, that they were granted amnesty. It is just like the open society, people go to church, pastors preach to them but not all of them follow the teachings.
What is the biggest challenge in the Nigerian prison system ?
The challenges are enormous but they are not insurmountable. They are being handled by the current Comptroller General of Prisons.
In the area of logistics, which used to be a major challenge, it is being surmounted. Just recently, we got four operational vehicles, to complement the existing ones. Two for Ikoyi Prison, one for medium prison and one for Badagry Prison.
So, those used to be the challenges, but it is being surmounted. Before now, inmates were not going to court regularly, but now they go regularly.
The belief out there is that the quality and quantity of food served inmates are not good; is denying prisoners good food part of their punishment?
It is not true. The feeding of prisoners is quite different from what it used to be in the past. If you see the Nigerian Prisons of yesterday and today, the difference is obviously clear. In the past, prisoners used to die in their numbers due to poor feeding, but now you see them coming out healthier because they are being fed three times a day. NGOs, religious bodies and individauls also come to assist us with the feeding of prisoners because our doors are open to the outside world, unlike what it used to be those days.
Are inmates allowed to be fed by their family members?
Yes, family members of inmates can feed them, if they so wish. Self-feeding is allowed, but it has to follow a process and procedure. An inmate will first indicate or elect that he or she wants the self-feeding arrangement. Then the family can follow the process. But inmates are well fed. Also, to ensure compliance with quality and quantity of food served to prisoners, I go round to do regular checks, surprise visits and inspections of where foods are prepared. I also assess the quantity and quality to make sure they are okay. The Controller General of Prisons has also set up a committee on that, even at the state level, we have a committee that also goes round on inspection.
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How does a prison inmate spend a typical day from dawn to dusk?
Very simple, we let them out. When they are out, we share them to their various vocational or educational centres. We have religious activities and sporting activities. It is more like a dormitory, once they are opened, those that are in carpentry, paint making, insecticide making, go there to learn. Those in formal education also go there. There is what we call mid-day lock-up, they have recreational time, some run or play tennis. Their daily life is well structured to make sure they get the benefit of reformation while incarcerated, except for the fact that they miss their freedom. But every other thing people do, they do so long as it is not prohibited and will not breach security.
When a criminal is sentenced with hard labour, how is the labour performed?
It is only in the past that prisoners were sentenced with hard labour. But now, those things don’t come up any longer. Those days, it was so because imprisonment was regarded as punishment, but now, imprisonmemt is for reformation and rehabilitation. You cannot be reforming a person and give him hard labour, it is like you are turning the psyche.
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The issue of congestion in the prison, how many inmates are supposed to be in the prison and how many are there at the moment?
The prison capacity in Lagos is 3,927, less than 4,000, but we have 9,051 or thereabout inmates, the figure may change before the end of today. Let me simply say over 9,000 inmates are in Lagos prisons. The inmates are made of different classes of inmates – the awaiting trial inmates, which forms the bulk of them, convicted inmates, those on death row, those on life. We are not responsible for committing to the prison; it is the court that does that. It is public knowledge that the prison is congested.
How do you cope with the congestion?
It is the constitutional mandate of the Nigerian Prisons Service. We cannot reject prisoners. Those are part of the challenges we are trying to overcome. You have more people to take to court, to feed, you need more space, so the Controller General of Prisons has made prison reform his top priority and he has sent it down through all his Controllers at the state level. In Lagos State Command, inmates go to court regularly to speed up the process; we have had the intervention of the headquarters in the area of logistics. We also have the Criminal Stakeholders Forum, where we liase with the judiciary, ministry of justice, police to ensure inmates’ trials are sped up, so that they can go out on time. We also have the intervention of public-spirited individuals, pro-bono lawyers that provide legal services. We have individuals too that help to pay fines of inmates. So, it is multi-faceted, not just one approach.
How many of the inmates in Lagos are on death row?
Say two per cent.
Those on awaiting trial?
Over 70 per cent of the prison population are awaiting trial. The figure keeps changing.
What is the command doing to promote professionalism amongst officers?
Regularly, our personnel go on courses. We pay particular attention to training and retraining of our officers. Particularly with the regime of the current Comptroller-General of Prisons, training in the past two years has been very consistent. And that has gone a long way in ensuring that staff are better equipped in the area of capacity building, and that translates to better and professional output. Staff welfare also is adequately taken care of.
What is your most challenging moment as a prison official? Do you recall any incident of significance?
When I was the comptroller of prison in Plateau State Command, I had some issues with the inmates in Jos Prison. It was clsoe to a jailbreak but we were able to surmount it. Throughout the night, we did not sleep because we wanted to make sure that they did not break jail and it did not happen. But it was a major challenge.
What is your advice to Nigerians outside the prison about freedom?
They should stay away from crime. Crime does not pay. They should always bear in mind that some people in prison are not all supposed to be there. Some are victims of circumstances, so anywhere you are, bear in mind, that one way or another, you can still find yourself in custody. Becasue if you beat up your spouse or fight someone and the person drops dead, you can find yourself in custody. That is one of the things that bring people to prison and that is why personally, when someone slaps me, I just walk away, because of my experience. Crime will bring you to prison.
