In the last few years, the spectre of overcrowding in custodial Centres across the country looms large over Nigeria’s criminal justice system, stretching the resources of the Centres and correctional staff well beyond their limits.
This formed conversations at a stakeholders meeting on non-Custodial measures in Lagos state.
Nigeria confronts significant challenges in managing offenders. These challenges include the excessive use of incarceration, which contributes to prison congestion and the repeated failure of rehabilitation and re-integration programmes run by the correctional service to reduce re-offending.
The last few years in Nigeria has witnessed concerted efforts to implement non-custodial measures in Nigeria, prompted particularly by the COVID-19 pandemic, which moved courts to begin to issue non-custodial sentences to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak in custodial centres.
When the COVID-19 pandemic eased, however, the drive by courts to utilise non-custodial sentences tapered down. During this period, the prison population also rose to high heights, standing at 78,621 as of March 11, 2024, suggesting a need to intensify prison decongestion efforts. Stakeholders in the criminal Justice system say the excessive use of incarceration, contributes to the repeated failure of rehabilitation and re-integration.
one of the benefits of non-custodial sentences is that they are individualised to address the offender’s criminal behaviour and rehabilitation needs.
It is imperative to revive interest in and utilisation of non-custodial measures in Ofer to address the need to humanise punishment and ensure that punishments are not unnecessarily harsh and incarcerative but provide the offender with ever-present incentives to increase the use of non-custodial measures.
