Competencias profesionales

191 4.4 Correctional Institutions for Children in Nigeria and their Roles towards Promoting

Child’s Rights

The two basic legislations for the regulation of the child‟s right in Nigeria: the Children and Young Person‟s Act, and the Child Rights Act which is the latest and is to repeal the former, made provisions for custodial corrections and the various facilities for that purpose as follows:

192 reformatory and industrial schools of the 19^th century, earlier recognized in 1908. It essentially caters for boys and girls who are more highly disturbed and less responsive to therapy. Reformatory and industrial school was said to have been established in Nigeria first time at Enugu in 1933 following the British colonial pattern and later at Isheri and Military street Lagos.⁴⁷⁰This custodial institution was established at Enugu as a wing of the Enugu prison.

The law that established Approved schools which is the Borstal Institutions and Remand Centre Act,⁴⁷¹was borne as a result of the provision of the Children and Young Person‟s Act which empowered the establishment of remand homes and approved institutions. The purpose for its establishment is to bring to bear upon the inmates every good influence which may establish in them the will to lead a good and useful life on release and to fit to do so by fullest development of his character, capacities and sense of personal responsibilities.⁴⁷²

A Borstal Remand Centre was established as a remand and reception centre prior to the transfer of committed juvenile offenders to the Borstal Institutions in Kaduna. The Act provides that only children between ten and sixteen years of age should be admitted to the approved school. The approved schools were to prepare children for the first school leaving certificate examinations and those who do well are subsequently released on licence on the ground that they continue to be of good behaviour.⁴⁷³

According to Ogbolumani the law establishing approved schools demand that every inmate shall receive education according to his age and development and such education shall be at least the equivalent of that which he would receive in his own special circumstance was

470 E.U.M Igbo, Introduction to Criminology (Nsukka: Afro Orbis Publishing Co. Ltd, 1999) p84.

471 Cap B11 LFN, 2004

472The Borstal and Remand Center Act, Cap B11 LFN, 2004, s 4.

473 B.O.I. Ogbolumani, „Institutional Treatment of Juveniles‟ in T.O. Elias (ed), The Magistrate and the Offender (Lagos: Lagos University Press) p 84.

193 he or she attending school in the usual way of education. Those who cannot cope with educational training have the option to get into various other vocational trades such as welding, tailoring, sign-writing, carpentry etc. The girls were taught domestic science subjects such as dress making, cookery and bakery. Corporal punishment is discouraged in order to avoid giving the wrong message to the inmates that they are in the school for punishment instead of treatment. Also recreational facilities such as football, netball, table tennis, as well as facilities for moral and religious training are provided to make inmates feel as much at home as possible. He further revealed that the motive behind these at the approved school, goes a long way to promote and preserve the rights to life and human dignity of the child and his right to reformation, and such a child gets back to the society a better and useful person. Having learnt techniques or undergone education, counselling and faith based therapy adds value to the society.⁴⁷⁴

The approved school from its mandate in the CYPA is an institution set for the care of children in need of care and protection, and child offenders in the absence of remand homes, and its motives as stated above are good for the treatment of the children. However, these good motives are not realised in practice as a result of lack of well equipped structures, funding, inadequate personnel among other factors.

On the other hand, Borstal institutions were established for the detention of offenders between sixteen and twenty-one years who were found guilty of offences by the court. A borstal thus serves both as a place of detention for older young offenders covered by the CYPA and as an intermediate place of detention for young adults who do not fall within this purview, on the presumption that they too may benefit, from the specialised treatment that is supposed to be available in borstals. Borstals are to provide such training to inmates as is

474Ibid.

194 conducive to their reform and prevention of crime.⁴⁷⁵ Borstals were established by the Borstal Institution and Remand Centre Act of 1960.⁴⁷⁶ The law provides that where a person is convicted by a court of an offence punishable with imprisonment, then if on the day of his conviction he is not less than sixteen years but under twenty-one years of age, and the court is satisfied having regard to such evidence available as to his character and previous conduct, and to the circumstances of the offence, that it is expedient for his reformation and the prevention of crime that he should undergo a period of training in a Borstal Institution, the court may in lieu of any other sentence, pass a sentence of the Borstal training.⁴⁷⁷The purpose of the institution is to „bring to bear upon the inmates every good influence which may establish in them the will to lead a good and useful life on release and to fit them to do so by the fullest development of character, capacities, and sense of personal responsibilities‟. The Act also stipulates that Juveniles sent for Borstal training shall be detained in such institutions for not more than three years from the date of the sentence.⁴⁷⁸

One of the criticisms to borstal was the contamination of child offenders by young adults who were also inmates which is inconsonance with the Beijing rules which provides for the separation of Juveniles in institution from adults and kept in a separate institution.⁴⁷⁹This is to prevent the danger of criminal contamination, being vulnerable to the negative influences of adult detainees and to grant ease of reformation. There is also need for separation based on other factors such as sex. To ensure non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, the rules provide that young female offenders placed in an institution deserve special attention as to their personal needs and problems. They shall by no means receive less care,

475 A K Ahmed, op cit. p43.

476 Borstal Institutions and Remand Centre Act, 1960.

477Ibid, s 3.

478 E E O Alenika and I.C Chukwuma , Juvenile Justice Administration in Nigeria: Philosophy and practice (Lagos: Centre for Law Enforcement Education) pp 52-53.

479 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, Rule 26 (3) and (5).

195 protection, assistance, treatment and training than young male offenders. Their fair treatment shall be ensured.⁴⁸⁰

The Borstal infringes the rule of separating children and adult inmates. Another challenge of the Borstal Institutions in Nigeria is the fact that workers at the Borstal Institutions are recruited from prison staff. This is in view of the fact that prison staff are trained to handle adult criminals and their line of training is focused on punishment primarily, and not on any other goal especially reformation.

Furthermore, with regard to the facilities needed for the realization of the objectives or goals of reformation and rehabilitation in the Borstals, it was reported that the facilities were fairly managed in the 1970‟s. However, by the 1980‟s, facilities and trainings had deteriorated, and were virtually non-existent in the 1990‟s.⁴⁸¹The situation now cannot be said to be better either. Alemika and Chukwuma argued generally that the laudable goals of the Borstal Institution could not be realized due to lack of proper policy, legal and institutional framework for juvenile offender, correction and juvenile delinquency prevention.

Other problems include under funding, inadequate staff in qualitative and quantitative terms, and lack of necessary training facilities in the workshops and educational programmes.⁴⁸² It is the view of the researcher that lack of maintenance of the home and overcrowding gave rise to these poor conditions. These conditions are not in consonance with the provisions of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules)⁴⁸³ which provides that the objectives of training and treatment of Juveniles placed in institution is to provide care, protection, education and vocational skills, with a view to assisting them to assure socially constructive and productive roles in the society. It

480Ibid, Rule 26 (4).

481 C R. Nwanna and N E N Akpan , Research Findings of Juvenile Justice Administration in Nigeria,(Constitutional Rights Project, 2003) p39.

482 E.E.O Alenika and I.C Chukwuma , op cit.

483 Adopted by the General Assembly Resolution 40/33 of 29 November, 1985.

196 provided further that Juveniles in institution shall receive care, protection and all necessary assistance –social, educational, vocational, psychological, medical and physical that they may require because of their age, sex, personality and in the interest of their wholesome development.⁴⁸⁴

ii. Remand Homes and Centres

Remand home is another custodial institution provided under the CYPA and established pursuant to the Borstal Institutions and Remand Centre Act. Section 16(1) of the CYPA empowered the minister or a local authority with the prior approval of the ministry to establish remand homes and make rules for the management, upkeep and inspection of the homes. Section 16(2) provides that where a remand home is conveniently situated, it shall be the place of detention for detention pending trial, or a place of custody while on trial if he is not granted bail and where a child is found guilty of a crime, which if he were an adult would have been in prison.⁴⁸⁵

According to Igbo, Remand homes were established to cater for juvenile offenders whose offences would attract imprisonment if they were adults. Remand homes share most of the characteristics with prisons. It serves as a place where juvenile facing trial in a Juvenile Court is sent pending the final determination of their cases. Also, juveniles who are thought to be beyond parental control or in need of care and protection are sent to remand centres until suitable foster homes are found for them. Ordinarily then, children in remand homes are usually there on transit.⁴⁸⁶

The Act stipulates a period of six months as the maximum period beyond which a juvenile shall not be detained or kept in this institution. The Act further provides that where

484 Rules 26 (1) and (2).

485 CYPA, ss. 4, 7 and 14.

486 E U M Igbo, Introduction to Criminology (Nsukka : Afro Orbis Publishing Co Ltd.) pp86-87.

197 no remand home is conveniently situated, a child or a young person ordered to be detained in custody may, in the discretion of the officer or the court, as the case may be, detained in an approved institution or prison, provided that the child or a young person if detained in the prison he shall not be allowed to associate with adult prisoners.⁴⁸⁷ Detention of children in prison as stipulated in the CYPA is contrary to the provisions of the Child Rights Act. This is really worrisome, in view of the state of prisons in Nigeria and the problem of crowding, which can never allow non-association of the child with the adult inmates.

There are remand homes established in major cities in some States across Nigeria.

These include: Sapele remand home in Delta State, Port Harcourt remand home in Rivers State, Ogun State remand home, Oregun remand home in Lagos State now known as Oregun Special Correctional Center, Remand home at Ngwo in Enugu State, Remand home at Oji River in Enugu State, Ibadan remand home and others. There are no remand homes in Anambra State. Thus the practice in Anambra State is that child offenders may be sent to remand home in another State. However, it must be noted that for very grievous cases, child offenders are sent to prisons, on the supposition that they are kept separate from adult inmates. There are also occasions where the ages of the child offenders are overstated in order to keep them in prison custody and arraign them at the regular courts. Similar situation obtains in Abuja.⁴⁸⁸

iii. Prison

In Nigeria the law which regulates prison management and administration is the Prison Act.⁴⁸⁹The Act provides that the Minister may by order in the federal gazette, declare any

487 CYPA, s 15.

488 Information obtained during visits to the Courts in Abuja and Anambra State by the Researcher.

489 Prison Act, Cap P29, LFN, 2004.

198 place or building in Nigeria to be a prison.⁴⁹⁰ The Act further provided that a prison must be housed in a building or an enclosure for the purposes of keeping offenders or persons suspected of deviating from the agreed societal norms.

Prisons were formerly meant for offenders generally, however, with the advent of the child justice system, children were excluded. Despite that, children are still imprisoned, and left to associate with adults, though contrary to the CYPA, which allowed child committal to prison when other measures are indispensible, but frowns at association with adult inmates.

The CRA which is the latest legislation does not support imprisonment for children.

Despite these provisions, a study by Nwanna showed that some juvenile offenders were detained in the prisons in some of the States covered because they did not have correctional institutions for juvenile as provided the Law. The study also revealed that these juvenile were associating with the adult criminals.⁴⁹¹ The lack of remand homes in Anambra State for instance corroborates this observation.

Similarly, Bamgbose observed that inadequacy in the number of remand centres, approved schools and borstal institutions have led to the detention and the imprisonment of young offenders in the prisons when the offence does not deserve it. Consequently, she expressed concern that in reality that it is not practicable for the officers of the prisons to segregate young offenders from the adults due to problems of overcrowding. She stated that the Nigerian prisons are said to contain a large number of young offenders, and often they are not separated from adults inmates on the basis of age or other relevant classifications, and this

490Ibid, s 2(1).

491 C R Nwanna, N E N Akpan , op cit, p 91.

199 is consistent with the provisions of Article 10(3) and 14(3)(d) of the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.⁴⁹²

Again, according to another later study, great majority of children in conflict with the law were held together with adults in regular prisons. It was observed that twenty one percent of persons in Kuje Prisons in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are children. There is a high population of children in Kano prisons and that Rivers State had the highest number of children in regular prisons compared to four other States where the study was conducted.⁴⁹³ Though the researcher denied the opportunity of determining the percentage of persons in Kuje Prisons and other prisons in Lagos and Anambra State, good number of children is inmates of the prisons. Also, Infants born in the prisons are currently in prison with their mothers in the prisons.

Ahmed posited that some children end up in prison not because they have committed any offence or come under any of the situations listed under the law, but either because they were born there or taken into the prison by their mothers. He gave instances with Mohammed Zulai Nasidi; Aisha Abubakar and Fauziyya Mua‟azu who were all nursing mothers in Kano central prisons. They were in detention along with their children between the ages of a day to 20 months.⁴⁹⁴ Another instance was Juli Haruna, male of fourteen years from Kundum village, a Fulani settlement near Gwagwalada Area Council of Abuja was arrested by the police on September 3, 2005 and detained at Garki Police station for ninety nine (99) days before being charged to Gudu High Court, Abuja on December 11, 2005 for murder. As at September 28, 2006 when the National Human Rights Commission visited Kuje prisons, he

492 O Bamgbose, Re –Evaluating the Juvenile/ Child Justice System in Nigeria (Lagos: Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 2014) p 34.

493 G Y Akinsesye, Juvenile Justice System in Nigeria (Abuja: Centre for Socio-Legal Studies,2009) pp 64, 68

& 73.

494The State of Human Rights in Nigeria 2005-2006. A Report on Human Rights Violations Monitored in Nigeria by Network of Human Rights Violations Monitors in Collaboration with NHRC, UNDP, and NORAD, p 34 in A K Ahmed, op cit, p 47.