LAW How prison farm hastens implementation of ACJA’s non-custodial sentencing
The visit of the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, to a facility of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) has given momentum to the implementation of non-custodial sentencing as provided for by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
Stakeholders in the justice system said the act introduces innovative provisions that could enhance the efficiency of the justice system. In other words, the ACJA 2015 builds upon the existing framework of criminal justice administration in the country with the aim of enhancing it.
Concerned with the over population of several prison facilities he visited, especially with the congestion caused by awaiting trial inmates in the prisons, the CJ concluded his prison tour with a visit to the NPS’ Dukpa Farm Centre in Gwagwalada.
Upon his satisfaction with the facilities at the centre, the CJ declared that soon judges and magistrates in the division would be sentencing convicts to community service which will reduce prison congestion.
He said Part 44 of the ACJA which deals with probation and non-custodial alternatives, has already provided for community service option when sentencing a convict, with Section 461 specifically providing for the arrangements for its implementation.
The FCT Command’s Controller of Prisons, Sylvester Nwakuche, who led the tour of the facility explained that the prisons authority had the speedy determination of cases and decongestion of the prisons in mind in setting up the facility.
He said the facility currently has the capacity of housing 150 inmates and it is populated with convicts with lesser sentences. And that these inmates are taught skills in poultry, cattle rearing, fishery and cultivation of rice, beans, maize and guinea corn, among others.
“Dukpa Farm Centre was built and designed to teach inmates vocation in farming and keep them resourceful. But of recent, the Comptroller General of Prisons has introduced baking and confectionaries in the place, so that we can teach them skills upon discharge to be useful to the society,” he added.
He said the prisons authority was also looking at how to generate revenue from the farm and have direct impact on the society.
On the future of the inmates housed in the facility, Nwakuche said, “As they are engaged here, certain percentages of what they realize are being kept for them and as they leave, they have something to fall back on.”
In an interview with Daily Trust, Professor Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), the President of the Centre for SocioLegal Studies (CSLS), one of the centres at the forefront of the passage of ACJA said the move by the CJ is laudable and, “I am not surprised because he was the chairman of the committee that drafted the ACJA,” he added.
He said the Act in sections 453, 460 and 468 attempted to address the problem of excessive use of imprisonment as a disposal method by introducing some alternatives.
“These include the introduction of suspended sentence, community service, parole and probation. For example, the community service order is already being used in Lagos State.
“There is also provision for suspended sentencing which means the sentence is suspended subject to good behaviour but the convict is monitored during this period. And there is also probation which is similar to suspended sentencing but in this case, there is no conviction. This may be conditional or not,” he said.
Prof. Akinseye-George said these are alternatives by which the Act aims at decongesting the prisons, “because it has been discovered that sentencing people to prison does not necessarily reduce criminality. Even right there in the prison, people learn how to be more criminally minded; people move from first-time offenders and become trained harden offenders in prison. So, we should de-emphasise the use of imprisonment.”
He added that the Act also provides that the court, in exercising its power shall have regard to the need to: reduce congestion in prisons; rehabilitate prisoners by making them to undertake productive work; and prevent convicts who commit simple offences from mixing with hardened criminals.
“By virtue of Section 467, courts may sentence and order a convict to serve the sentence at a Rehabilitation and Correctional Centre established by the Federal Government in lieu of imprisonment.
“The court in making an order of confinement at a Rehabilitation and Correctional Centre shall have regard to the age of the convict; the fact that the convict is a first offender; and any other relevant circumstances necessitating an order of confinement at a Rehabilitation and Correctional Centre,” he said.
On why it took over two years since the passage of the Act for the implementation of the non-custodial sentencing to kick in, he said that was because there are certain facilities that must be provided before community service sentencing and others can be operational.
“There is need for budgetary funding, so that community service centres and supervisors can be engaged. I understand these facilities are now being provided for by the Federal Government and the state governments that have adopted the ACJA. I believe the delay has been funding challenge,” he said.
He added that one of the facilities that should be provided by heads of courts is the guidelines and the rules which are still being developed. He said private organisations like hospitals and schools can be co-opted into the system.
“Part of the suggestions we have put forward is that it should be made possible for convicts who are on community service orders to serve out their terms in private organisations that need their services.
“In fact, these organisations may be asked to pay a token for their services to the government which can be another means of generating revenue for the government. Part of the money could also be paid to the convicts. But the guidelines must make that clear because so far, there is no clarity on that,” he said.
He said with the act aiming to promote efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice and protection of the society from crime, other judicial divisions in the country must quickly subscribe not only to the act but its comprehensive implementation.