8. Injustice Within a Criminal Justice System: Experiences of the Poor in Nigerian Prisons

Salisu A. Abdullahi and Ismaila Mohammed Zango

Criminal Justice is all-encompassing expression entailing different crime prevention, management and control organizations and agencies, and the way they act and interact to achieve the desired goal of crime free society. As a system, Criminal Justice is a body made up of dynamically interactive and interdependent elements each with its own social structure, sub-cultural character and patterns. It is a system of practices and organizations of Government directed towards upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime and punishing or rehabilitating persons that violate the law.

In Nigeria, criminal justice system is based on the philosophy that the accused is innocent until proven guilty by Government organizations charged with the responsibility. In the processes of establishing the guilt or otherwise, the accused’s dignity must be recognized through following proper procedures. Violation of these rules abuses the accused rights and threatens the foundation of criminal justice.

According to Senna and Siegal (1984) there is debate regarding the goals of criminal justice as to whether the system should have one goal or multiple goals or even which among the goals should be more emphasized. Law enforcement argued crime control efforts “are best served by the goal of deterrence”. The corrections argument posited rehabilitation is the most significant goal of criminal justice. They submit:

It appears that two major categories of goals exist for the criminal justice system: 1) theoretical or abstract goals which include retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation; and 2) pragmatic goals such as crime prevention, diversion of offenders from the criminal justice system, fairness in procedures for handling the offenders, efficiency in criminal justice operations, and evaluation (Senna and Siegel, 1984:103).

Components and Nature of Nigerian Criminal Justice System

Criminal justice system in Nigeria has three main components. If the criminal justice of any nation is to be considered a success, each of the three components – law enforcement, courts and corrections – must operate in a competent and just manner. The police are the law enforcement agents employed by the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since they are agents of the Federal Government, a Police Officer can be posted to work anywhere in the country – Local Government Area, State or Federal Capital Territory. The Police are basically concerned with maintaining order and enforcing the law of the land. They are the first contact an offender has with criminal justice system; they investigate and make arrest. The Police are empowered to use force and other means of legal coercion in order to carry out their constitutional responsibilities. As such, police work is central to effective and efficient system and process of criminal justice particularly in the areas of crime prevention and investigation. Crimes arise from interaction between members of the society and are usually external to the criminal justice. Most crime come to the attention of the public through reports to the police by people or through filing complaints by those affected or during police routine like patrol. Cases investigated are prosecuted in the court of law.

In Nigeria, courts are categorized into two main types in terms of ownership. The State-owned lower courts, Shari’a/Customary Courts, magistrate and high courts. The Federal Government has ownership of Federal High Courts, Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Court is a place where disputes are settled and justice is administered. Each court is made up of court work group—judge, prosecutor, and defense attorneys. Courts may be considered the crux of criminal justice systems, for it is within them that trial, and post-trial motions, petitions, appeals and sentencing occur. According to Senna and Siegel (1984), it is the duty of the court to establish the guilt or innocence of offenders brought before it. It is supposed to convict and sentence those found guilty of crimes, at the same time, ensuring the innocent are freed without any consequence or burden. The entire process of establishing the guilt is supposed to be done with the recognition that the rights of the individual are protected throughout. Bowker (1982:21) describes the picture of what happens at the tail end of the court process:

Cases which go to trial results are a finding of guilty or not guilty. For those who are found guilty, the next stage in the criminal processing is the sentencing hearing, at which the judge pronounces the sentence upon the offender. At the point of pronouncement, the offender departs from judicial system and enters into correctional system. This transfer is specified in the sentence and symbolised by the leading away of the offender into captivity or whatever other punishment has been pronounced.

Correction is the final component of Nigerian Criminal justice system. After the accused has been found guilty by the court, he is handed over to correctional officials. Corrections include among others institutionalization – detainment, in and before trial and confinement in prison. This paper focuses its attention on prison and more specifically the experiences of the convicted and awaiting trial inmates with the stated stages of Nigerian Criminal Justice System.

Prison is an institution in which people are confined against their will and also deprived of a range of personal freedom. Imprisonment is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the State for the commission of crime. In modern time, prison is the most publicly visible form of punishment. In Nigeria, confining people against their will has existed in different societies before the contact with outside, for example, Olofin (1992), Iwarimie- Jaja (2003) and Argungu (2007) differently reported the existence of prison-like structures such as Ikedi or Ogboni House among the Yoruba, Ewedo House in Edo, Kurkuku or Gidan Yari among the Hausa and Fulani. What exist as modern Nigerian Prison system today evolved with the promulgation of Prison Ordinance No. 21 of 1916 to the present-day arrangement; in which all prisons in the country are under the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the Federal Government White Paper on Prisons circulated in 1971, cited by Babakodong (1992:27) the Nigerian Prisons Service is mandated to:

• Keep safe custody of persons who are legally interned;
• Identify the cause of their anti-social behaviour, treat and reform them to become disciplined and law-abiding citizens of a free society;
• Train them towards their total rehabilitation and discharge.

By the above mandate, the public and the society at large is protected from the criminal behaviour of its members. In the long run, security is provided through modifications and occupational skills acquired in the prison that guarantees a crime-free life after discharge. More elaborate functions of Nigerian prisons service were indicated in the Prison Act, Cap 366 of the 1990 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria cited in Argungu (2007:80) as follows:

• Taking into custody of all those certified to be so kept by courts of competent jurisdiction;
• Producing suspects in court as at when due;
• Identifying the causes of their anti-social dispositions;
• Setting in motion mechanisms for their treatment and training for eventual reintegration into society as normal law-abiding citizens on discharge;
• Administer prison farms and industries for this purpose and in the process generate revenue for the Government.

Given the above, the roles of prison are to punish the offender, reduce crime in the society through deterrence, protect the public and finally, reform and rehabilitate the offender.

Discussions

Parsons (1971) argue the existence of society entails some degree of control over citizens, territorial area and economic-technological complex. Greater part of the formal control exercised over these matters by national Government is administered through the criminal justice. This, criminal justice operates through the law. According to Parsons (1971:18) the law is “The general normative code regulating action of, and defining situation for, the member units of a society”. In other words, the law does not only tell members of society what is right and wrong; it in addition gives a framework to which they can orient their daily behavior. Cohen (1966) maintains criminal justice system is intended to extirpate deviance. As Parsons (1966) argues, through this system and during more subtle social pressure, the deviant members of the society are penalized or otherwise induced to acquiesce in the dominant standards of society. Given this, punishment is functional in that as Durkheim (1933[1893]) argues, it reinforces social stability by clarifying social norms and solidifying conventional society against its criminal members who are punished. As such, care must be taken to ensure that only the guilty are appropriately punished. He further maintained that it is the social structure of a society that assists to determine the type of punishment it adopts.

The purpose of legislation is to ensure that the strong and the powerful do not deny the weak their right. Criminal justice system which consists of organizations earlier explained in this paper ensures equity, peace, stability and justice for all in the society assured. This view is entrenched in all the known modern legal system including Nigeria’s. Alemika (1988) cited Iwarimie-Jaja (2003) who mentioned the principles that must be respected in administering the law of the land. They include: the rule of due process, legal equality, equity, deserts and consistency or criminal dispositions among various categories of crime and criminal suspects or convicts. To the contrary, in Nigeria, injustice, inefficiency and other problems are much more observed in the functioning of criminal justice agencies as indicated in the works of Alemika (1989) and Madaki (2005). Perhaps this is why Alemika and Best (1989:150) assert:

The Nigerian Criminal Justice System has been criticized, and dubbed as ineffective, inefficient, unjust and repressive. The reasons for these observed problems include colonial legacy of repression upon which the institution was founded; poor working conditions, inadequate staff training and motivation, manipulation of the agencies by successive governments in the country to silence opposition, poverty which prevents the vast mass of Nigerians from exercising their rights and the general climate of repression and autocracy which scares people away from the legal system. Particularly, the police are seen as corrupt, repressive, ineffective and inefficient.

The above position especially on the perception of police seems universal. For example, Alpert and Noble (2009) maintain police officers act in ways that are deceptive, they manipulate people and situations they force suspects into accepting charges, and are dishonest. They argue police are taught and motivated and often rewarded for their deceptive practices. They posit:

…Officers often lie to suspects about witnesses and evidence, and they are deceitful when attempting to learn about criminal activity. Most of these actions are sanctioned, legal, and expected (2009:237)

Who are the imprisoned in Nigeria? The data indicate the majority are males, only 7% of the respondents are females, and this represent the total number of women in all three studied State Prisons. Most of the inmates (55%) are in 20-30 yrs age category. Juveniles constituted 9% of the total study sample. This shows that juvenile offenders are incarcerated in conventional prisons. Married inmates constituted 57% of the respondents. Majority (48%) have from 1-5 children. Inmates with 6-10 children constitute only 9% of the sample.

According to Michalowski (1985) in the US prisons and jails considerable majority of the prisoners are exclusively people from the poor segment of the society. Also, Baldock et. al. (1999) stated that the prison population reflect criminalization process. They noted in Europe, large numbers of prison population are the unemployed, the poor and the homeless. They further maintain these groups are those routinely incarcerated in European countries. In Nigeria too, as shown by the study of prisons conducted by Abdullahi and Zango (2003) indicated 29% of the inmates have no formal education and another 29% have either primary education or have not completed secondary school. Those with diploma or university degree constituted less than 2% of the inmate’s sample. The occupation data show 68% of the prisoners are subsistent farmers, drivers, casual laborers, and blacksmith and garbage pickers. Only 12% are junior civil servants. As expected, no or low education is most likely to place one not only on low occupational hierarchy but also into lower income. Thus, this explains why majority of the inmates (37%) are earning below N20, 000 per annum, 13% earn from N20, 001 – N40, 000 in a year. Finally, 34% are either not working or did not answer the question. Thus 71% of the inmates are either earning very low income, not working or they don’t even know their income. The fact that the majority of the respondents are in structural term at the periphery of the society, one cannot rule out the possibility of them committing crime and ending up in prison as suspects or convicted. Again, as earlier seen many of them are married with children, economic pressure from their individual families is likely to push them into committing crime. Rusche and Kircheimer (1939) cited in Barkan (1997) argue imprisonment increases when unemployment increases. They further argued when people are unemployed they are angrier and more prone to rebellion. To prevent the problem of mass protest, the ruling class put more of the poor behind bars. For putting the poor behind bars they further maintain; intimidates the poor from rebelling and equally decreases their labor supply, leaving fewer of them to compete for the scarce jobs.

Why are the respondents in the Prisons? The study revealed that 63% of the respondents are in the prisons for (different) theft offences including armed robbery. Offences like witchcraft, wandering, refusal to pay loan, child abandonment constituted 32% of the sample. The data showed majority of the prisoners have been to the individual sampled prisons more than once. Over half of the prisons’ population are Awaiting trial and have been waiting for their cases to be determined by the court for a period of between 1-5 years. Also, among the Awaiting trial, there are those that have been in the prisons for more than 10 years. In what follows, attempt is made to bring what the individual prisoners experienced going through the criminal justice process.

Policing is the first stage of the criminal justice process; accordingly, majority of the prisoners in the sample said their cases were reported to the police. The data further indicated 77% of the prisoners said police were not fair in handling their cases for differently given reasons like: altering of records, arrest on mistaken identity and delay in taking their cases to the court. There is a feeling of serious dissatisfaction with the way police treated majority of the cases. A convicted discussant in Birnin Kudu narrated his experience as follows:

Later they asked me to bring something (money), which I did not have for the case to be killed. The police search and took away my money (N500). That’s whoever comes to the police counter his money is not his. The police have seriously beaten me up daily for 7 days then took me to the court.. (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003:28)

Another discussant in the focus group of convicted in Ado – Ekiti prison mentioned:

Police are wicked. They are corrupt. They wanted me to pay N150, 000 for an offence I have not committed… (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003: 28)

The following position of Awaiting trial prisoner at Gboko Prison is similar to the above:

Police are corrupt especially the prosecutors… They torture several times and beat somebody to force him/her accept what he has not done. (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003:28)

Madaki (2005:13) reported the experience of a prisoner awaiting trial for a suspected homicide in his study of Kano Prisons:

The police arrested five of us in connection with the case; the police released two among us even before we were…taken to the court. The other two hired the services of a private counsel who collaborates with the court while we are in the prison and they were released on bail after paying large amount of money to the counsel and the court. Only I remain in the prison because I do not have the money to give for that purpose for the past 5 years now.

The discussants in all the prisons studied mentioned different forms of torture the Nigeria Police have subjected them to as follows:

1.Beating which is the most common form of torture. 2. Spraying tear gas in the face around the eye area. 3. Hanging with iron chain and steel rod. 4. Putting broom inside penis and squashing testis area. 5. In particular, a discussant transferred from Gusau Prison to Gumel said police punched 4” inches nail on his hand to force him accept armed robbery charge. 6. Inflicting fracture on hand or leg, etc.

Court is the next stage in the criminal justice process progression; it is the nitty-gritty of criminal justice. The data showed that the prisoners have comparatively more positive view of court, but even this; is not high (less than half of the sampled prisoners said the courts are fair). Some of the prisoners (6%) said they cannot assess whether the court is fair or not. Those that opined the judges are not fair gave the following reasons: corruption, rampant adjournment of cases and connivance with the police. A prisoner awaiting trial in Ado-Ekiti prison narrated his experience:

I have been here since 1995. I had a lawyer from 2000 – 2002. My mother paid for the lawyer. The Police did not give the lawyer room to work. The judges keep adjourning my case (20 times). The police asked for money… The judge refused bail and always gives two months adjournment. (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003: 30)

Madaki also reported a focus group member awaiting trial narrated:

I was taken to court fourteen months ago. And I do not know when I would be taken back; in fact, I lost confidence in the process (Madaki, 2005:14).

Another focus group member among the Gboko Prison Awaiting trial said

Judges too are concerned with money though it is some of them, not all. (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003:31)

Some prisoners across focus groups felt that judges would have performed better, if police have done their work properly. Others said judges are okay only the prosecutors are the problem. The data on assessment of courts’ decisions indicated that 71% of those imprisoned associated the outcome of their cases to their low socio-economic status. In other words, they are in the prison and or serving the prison term because they are poor.

The data on cost of legal services indicated the cost of services of  lawyers is high. Lawyers got more favorable perception than police and other members of court work group in that some prisoners across the sample have lawyers and have confidence in them. Still some of the prisoners complained of their lawyers across the research locales. Awaiting trial discussants in different sampled prisons’ focus group individually maintained as follows:

Some lawyers do their work but others do not. I have for 2 years been having a lawyer but the case has not been through. The lawyer told me that he would secure me bail, if I gave N60, 000.00 — B/Kudu Prison (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003: 31).

I was well represented, N50,000 was paid to the lawyer and my father paid for it. The case is yet to go to trial…Others collect fees and do not work — Ado Ekiti Prison (Abdullahi and Zango, (2003: 31)

Lawyers demand much money, which is not affordable for the poor, and as such are hardly accessible to the poor — Gboko Prison (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003: 31)

Generally, there is more awareness of private legal services among the Ado-Ekiti prisoners than prisoners in Benue and Jigawa States Prisons. Despite the fact that most of the prisoners are poor, the majority of them (84%) did not seek the assistance of Legal Aid Council, because they are either not aware of it or the place it is located. Only 10% of those aware of it contacted the council for assistance.

The data on prisoners view on the prison environment and experience under imprisonment indicated inmates are put in a cell on the basis of sex and status, whether awaiting trial or convicted but age and offence committed are not considered as factors. The majority (55%) of the respondents described the feeding as adequate and they are being visited by relations and friends. The prisoners differently described the situation in their individual prisons in the following statements:

The environment is dirty; we are over 60 in a room, we used the toilet and sleep in the same (place) room… The food is bad; I don’t like their food here. We have lice, skin diseases, people fall ill with cough and fever which are very frequent. We buy drugs that are not available — Awaiting trial discussant, Ado Ekiti Prison (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003: 36)

Another discussant among the Gboko (convicted) FGD equally narrated:

There are mosquitoes, bed bugs, poor ventilation (no windows), no bed, no mattresses, no soap; no chewing stick and the food is not sufficient — (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003:36)

Again, the following are other accounts as to what is on ground in the prisons studied:

No enough mattresses, no blankets… Cells are not clean, there is water shortage and that affects sanitary condition. Illness above the power of prison clinic the prisoners have to pay for the treatment and we don’t have money. The common sicknesses are eye problems, ringworm, flies, and stomach pain — Awaiting trial discussant, Makurdi Prison (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003:36)

We eat three times a day, no meat in the food, no tea but kunu (pap) and tuwo… There is no vocational or formal teaching — Convicted discussant, Birnin Kudu Prison (Abdullahi and Zango, 2003: 36)

Conclusion

Majority of the prisoners in Nigerian prisons are poor married men with children. The expressions of general dissatisfaction with the actors of criminal justice are common among both the convicted and awaiting trial prisoners studied. This is supported by the narrations of the individual experiences with the police, lawyers and the court, in particular. Request for bribe, torture, disappearance of exhibit and valuable items taken away by the police, delayed hearing, judge not sitting and refusing to grant bail are the most mentioned experiences in all the prisons studied. These explain why Awaiting trial prisoners constitute the majority among the population of Nigerian prisons; some of whom have been there for over 10 years.

Recommendations and Implementation Strategies

1. Government should fight the root cause of crime through addressing the problem of economic hardship in the country associated with unemployment, inflation and the attendant abject poverty in the country.

Implementation Strategy

Federal and State Governments to come with policies and programs that would resuscitate the collapsed industries in Nigerian urban areas and establish small-scale industries in semi-urban and rural areas. Farmers be motivated to shift from subsistence to modern farming technique, and also; be encouraged to utilize bank loan for farming purposes. Roads and feeder roads network to link rural markets with urban areas.

2. Raising the awareness among the actors in criminal justice for the need to investigate/treat cases without delay

Implementation Strategy

Establish monitoring department in the President and Governors offices to operate as an independent watchdog to be overseeing criminal cases being handled to ensure there is no unnecessary delay. Officials found to be delaying cases for any reason other than legal should be punished appropriately.

3. Government should improve the condition of prisoners and prisons.

Implementation Strategy

Provision of good food, clothing, beds, mattresses and the beddings. Improve sanitary condition in the prisons and their surroundings. Introduce training programs in functional occupational skills and post-release supervision program

4. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with programs on human rights should assist the poor in prisons.

Implementation Strategy

Embark on enlightening prisoners on their rights and the poor friendly legal services available, how and where they are provided.

5. Legal Aid Council should make its presence known to the poor and serve more effectively to make the poor feel the essence of its presence.

Implementation Strategy

Through both print and electronic media mount an awareness campaign to let people know its location, operation and services. And with NBA, explore the possibilities of reducing legal fees being charged by private lawyers.

References

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