Why minors end up in adult prisons — NCoS

The Nigerian Correctional Service has disclosed reasons minors end up in adult cusodial prisons instead of juvenile remand homes, attributing it’s cause to systemic failures at the state level, including the collapse of remand homes across the country.

During the third public hearing of the Independent Investigative Panel on alleged corruption, abuse of power, torture, and other inhumane treatment by the NCoS, on Monday, the Head of Welfare Department of the service, Timothy Dabit, offered detailed explanations for the presence of underage detainees in adult correctional facilities.

Dabit also urged state governments to uphold their constitutional responsibility in handling youth offenders to avoid minors ending up in adult prisons.

“Sometimes, we receive a child along with a warrant, and based on that document, we are expected to admit the individual.

“In most cases, the warrant contains information about the child, but when the child is brought to an adult correctional centre, we often have to question the police about why such a child is being sent there. It becomes a matter of contention, and we rely on the police to justify the decision,” Dabit explained.

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“We have only three that is functional, one in Kaduna, one in Ilorin, and one in Abeokuta,” he noted, adding that geographical constraints and lack of facilities often force officials to house minors in inappropriate environments.

“The data of the correctional centres, that is the borstal institutions  the capacity of Kaduna is supposed to be 288, Ilorin is 250, Abeokuta is 250. But because of lack of these institutions, we have this inmate overcapacity, except for that of Ilorin,” he noted.

“If you go to Ilorin, you are not going to find inmates or awaiting trial people. So it is only Abeokuta that is requisited for that duty,” he noted.

“The establishment of remand homes is, at the core view, the constitutional duty of the state governors, even before now“In the past, virtually all the state governors had remand homes. Unfortunately, as we speak, most of the states’ remand homes are not functioning,” Dabit explained.

“This panel will do us a lot of good if we can get in contact with the state governors, let them rejuvenate their remand homes so that young offenders can be put there in calm,” he appealed.

Dabit also addressed issues around pregnant women in custody, clarifying that female inmates are not impregnated within correctional facilities.

“Sometimes pregnant women are brought to custodial centres. Nobody gets pregnant when they are in the custodial centre. The woman is brought in, pregnancy test is conducted immediately. It is an emergency to ensure that the person is free.”

“Even the uniform of our staff who work in that place is different. And there are specialists, like psychologists, and other professionals,” he noted.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE