From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

The Federal Government has hinted at plans to cut down on the number of custodial facilities in the country, declaring that Nigeria does not need the current figure of 256.

It noted that some facilities are only utilising about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of their carrying capacities, adding that there is a need to identify inmates with federal offences with a view to redistributing them across the custodial facilities since virtually every state has a Federal High Court.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this in Abuja at the “Public Hearing on Alleged Corruption and Other Violations against the Nigerian Correctional Service”, organised by the Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment against the Nigerian Correctional Service.

“How many correctional centres do we even need? It is part of what you should cover, in Nigeria,” the minister told the committee.

“Realistically speaking, do we need 256 correctional centres that we have? The answer is no, because the more the correctional centres, the more the pressure and the stress in terms of supervision and control. And when there is a problem of supervision and control, abuse becomes inevitable.

“So, in so many climes today, you have 3,000-capacity correctional centres. How many do we actually need? We need to look at that.

“Number three is, even with what we have today, there are some correctional centres that are densely populated or overcrowded.

“And there are some that are not too populated. If there are criminals, if they are federal offences, there is federal jurisdiction. If I am not wrong, federal jurisdiction is everywhere, federal high court.

“So, can we critically look and analyse every correctional centre and look at those [inmates] who have committed federal offences and move them to areas that are less populated? Because it will shock you that there are correctional centres with about 30 per cent, 40 per cent occupation rate and there are some with about 200 per cent. So how do we look at it? We think those are short-term gains that we can do like now and be able to reduce the space,” he stated.

-Sun