Nigerian Prisons

Imprisonment is aimed, not primarily at punishing or revenging, but to confine criminal suspects and convicts, reform and rehabilitate offenders and provide education, vocational and moral training to them. However, our conception and philosophy of prison and imprisonment and our attitude towards prisoners and ex-convicts (and even prison staff) seem to reflect in the manner in which prisons are neglected and the ordeals which prisoners are subjected to. Successive governments have hardly, if ever, adequately addressed the problems of the Nigerian Prisons Service.Indeed, a visit to any prison in Nigeria will elicit outrage in the conscience of any right¿thinking and humane person and convince any skeptic about the urgent need for the reform of our prison system. Our prisons are in a deplorable condition requiring urgent attention. In fact, the nation¿s whole penal philosophy calls for urgent review.