Prison congestion: Community servicing as an alternative

PRISON congestion is a social  phenomenon that occurs when the demand for space in prisons in a  jurisdiction exceeds the capacity  for prisoners in that society or country. It arises where the number of inmates at a given period of time exceeds the actual capacity originally meant for that prison. Prison congestion or over-crowding is caused by a variety of factors such  as increasing  crime rates, harsher penalties for criminal activities, high recidivism, needed improvements to the penal system, backlogs and undue delays in the trials of criminal cases  and unresolved civil disputes remain key problems in the justice sector and is one of the main causes of the very high number of awaiting trial detainees and invariably prison overcrowding in most prisons across the globe. Then there is also the non-duplication of case files by investigating Police Officers (IPO’s) and cases of police not bringing of suspects regularly for prosecutions or court trials are among these factors.

According  to the National    Bureau  of  Statistics (NBS),  as  of    February   2017 , 72 per cent  of inmates  in Nigeria   prison  formations    were awaiting  trial persons. The menace of congestion in various prisons across the country has become worrisome and if not promptly looked into, it is capable of defeating  the very purpose of establishing  prisons in any society, principal among which is to serve as a reformative, rehabilitating , correctional and re-integration facility for the betterment of the inmates, the country and society at large and which can never be achieved under  the present condition of our prisons across the country. The   prolonged      trials  and  overuse  of imprisonment   for  minor   offences     have done   more  damage   than  good to  all; they constitute a major threat to the welfare of the inmates and  on  the individual. Most minor offenders during the years or periods of awaiting trials and even after being tried and sentenced are locked up with hardened criminals who in turn influence them, making them become hardened thereby becoming terrors to the society at large after being released from prison.

Also, the  attitude of the society  and the stigma attached to a person who has committed a minor offence and has served a jail term could make him or her feel unwanted in the society leading to his desire to deliberately commit grievous offences that could send him or her back to prison. In order to reduce the rates at which most of our prisons are being congested and to achieve the primary purpose for which most of these corrective facilities were established for, I think it’s high time non – custodial measures such as adopting the “Community Servicing” as alternative to imprisonment  for minor offences was adopted into the justice system as it has being  in practiced in developed countries of the world. Neither the Criminal Code Act nor the Penal Code Act of Nigeria makes provision for community service as a form of  punishment for minor  offences and misdemeanor. But the spate at which our prisons are  being congested with awaiting trial  inmates makes the inclusion of community service in the laws governing crimes imperative. There are many instances whereby community service would be apt as an alternative to prison or jail term.

The term community service, on the surface, is free service or activity that is carried out by someone or a group of people as contribution for the benefit of the public or its institutions. This service can be voluntary in some cases while in others, are compelled by their government as part of citizenship requirements, in lieu of military service, the courts, etc. The  legal  definition  of  community  service refers to “a sentencing  option  for  persons   convicted of  crimes  in which  the court  orders the defendant to perform a number of  hours of unpaid work for the benefit of the public; a  person  convicted of a  criminal  offence  may be  required    to  complete  a sentence of community service directly   or  as an express  condition of probation.” Community service, as pronounced by the courts, is a  form of punishment wherein the offender, usually in cases of minor offences and/ or a first timer is given  a social responsibility in lieu of a jail term. This form of social responsibility ranges from an array of options such as sanitation wise, farming, cleaning public drainages, bush clearing, helping out in other  Local Government functions amongst other activities.  Furthermore, in adopting the community service for minor offences, people convicted of crimes would be required to perform certain services  that would be beneficial to the society  or to work for certain public agencies that need manpower for service delivery. A fine may be introduced in exchange for a prescribe numbers of hours of community service.

Community  service is often  used  as an  alternative  to  imprisonment, with the intent  to  connect  offenders  to the  victims or  society in order to make  them  realise how  their actions    affects   others in   the  society. Community  service  in  the   criminal   justice   system    started  in 1966   as a  way  for  offenders  to work  off   traffic  fines  in   California  and   as a result  of   the success  of  the  program,  community  service became implemented in the United-States as a  meaningful    alternative  to  jail  sentences.  Adopting the  community service   into the criminal  justice  system at the three levels of government in Nigeria   would help the  overhauling of the criminal  justice system  and aid the  fast-tracking of  justice delivery while  giving  room  for  decongestion of  our  prisons. Furthermore, the benefit of adopting the community service into  justice system both at the three tiers of Government is that it would reduce Government’s budget by saving the Government the high cost of maintaining prison inmates while such funds could be expended on  other meaningful developmental projects in the country.

In addition, rather than imprisoning minor offenders and feeding them from the scarce resources of the Government, Internal Generated  Revenue(IGR) can be generated through community servicing.

• Akinpelu writes in from Abeokuta, Ogun State.