By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
President, Prisons Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Uju Agomoh, has lamented the lack of centralized data base for inmates in the nation’s custodial centres.
She expressed her resentment in Benin while speaking on the topic: “Legal Foundations of Non-Custodial Sentencing: NCoS Act 2019 & ACJA 2015- Identification of challenges in the utilization of non-custodial measures and in the implementation of laws relating to Non-Custodial Measures; – Overview of the Proposed Interventions on Advancing Non – Custodial Implementation”
Agomoh, an Associate Professor of Criminology and Security Studies, Christland University, Abeokuta, said the ultimate goal of creating a centralized database of all people in custody and all places of Custodial is to allow the country to know who is in custody, where they are.
Agomoh said the database will enable the government to plan and ensures the right actions are taken.
While giving more information on Community Services as parts of the ways to decongest the custodial centres, she said certain criteria must be observed such as the time the inmate comes to carry out his community service, hour spent, the time he leaves and what could be the financial value of the job done.
The PRAWA’s president said that there is nothing also bad if there is an inscription on the shirt of the person carrying out his community service “saying I am on a community service, paying back to my country”
She added that if the inmate is a teacher, he can also be taken to the classroom to teach.
Speaking on the topic: “To promote a rehabilitative and proportional sentencing approach among judicial officers”, the Anambra State Parole Board Chairman, Justice E.K Anigbogu rtd, said nothing is new about the subject of discourse adding that, the only thing that is new is the name change.
He said all the methods enumerated for the decongestion of the Correctional Centres have been in existence before now.
On the part of the Edo State Parole Board chairman, Hon. Justice Alero Edodo-Eruaga (rtd), she said that judicial officers should be more flexible and understanding, and not always viewing offenders solely through the lens of punishment by incarceration.
She said while punishment is necessary after an offense, there are other methods besides incarceration.
Edodo-Eruaga added that rehabilitation and restoring the offender to society is crucial, as even after lengthy prison sentences, offenders will return to society and need to be reintegrated.
