Lagos — In a country where the prison system is yearning for reform, the case of vulnerable prisoners hasn't received the kind of attention it requires. However, George Oji writes that there appears to be a silver lining in the horizon with an awareness campaign launched recently in Abuja

All too often in Nigeria, we forget that prisoners are normal human beings, deserving of all basic human rights. The result is that they are often neglected, and their general living condition abused. But the truth of the matter, according to legal experts, is that, many of the persons held in our prisons, are often innocent of some of the offences for which they are held, thus making such persons mere victims of circumstances. Under Nigerian laws, as well as other international instruments to which Nigeria is signatory, these prisoners are entitled to all the are applicable to everybody. But whether they have access to such rights, is another matter altogether.

Among prison experts, it is agreed that all prisoners, at least by reason of their incarceration, are vulnerable. Vulnerable in the sense that the harsh and dehumanising conditionwhich they often find themselves, is capable of inflicting harm on their spirit and ability to survive. But even as all prisoners qualify as vulnerable, the truth of the matter is that some of them, by reason of their physical make up or other disabilities, are more vulnerable than others. This later group of vulnerable prisoners or special categories of prisoners include juveniles, awaiting trial persons, lifers, prisoners on death row, women prisoners and prisoners with mental disabilities. What perhaps makes the case of these special groups of prisoners very worrisome according to experts, is the fact that there are currently no developed policies and operational guidelines to handle their cases in Nigeria. This is even more so, when it is public knowledge, that the prison officers and other criminal justice agents are often ill-trained and ill-equipped to respond to the specific needs of these prisoners.

It is perhaps in recognition of this yearning gap in our prison administration system that the Prisoners Rehabilitation Welfare Action (PRAWA), a non-governmental organisation recently mounted a special focus on the plight of vulnerable prisoners in Nigeria.The organisation is concerned with, "Promoting transformative justice models that recognise healing and accessible justice for the community prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims, youths-at risk, torture survivors and their families," As part of that campaign strategy, PRAWA, with the financial support of the Open Society Initiatives for West Africa (OSIWA), recently undertook a nation-wide survey of Nigeria's prisons to obtain actual information on the state of vulnerable prisoners, with a view to designing practical steps to address their condition. PRAWA also conducted a three-day awareness workshop on treatment of vulnerable prisoners in Abuja, where it brought together stakeholders in the criminal justice administration, to chart the way forward in the treatment of vulnerable prisoners in Nigeria. Participants at the workshop were drawn from about twenty non-governmental organisations, police officers, prison officials, judicial officers and lawyers. Also as part of its awareness campaign strategy, PRAWA has been visiting media organisations, to highlight the condition of these special prisoners, with a view to drawing society's attention to their plight. The opening ceremony of the workshop, which took place at Ibro Hotel, Abuja between October 1 to 3, attracted senior officers of the National Human Rights Commission led by its chairman, Hon. Justice

Uche Omo; Executive Secretary, Buhari Bello, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi (SAN) and Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Prison Matters, Mr. Emmanuel Arinze.

Others included the African Representative of the Open Society Institute, Prof Chidi Odinkalu; Director General of the Legal Aid Council, Uju Hossan Baba; Dr. C. C. Nweze, judge of the High Court of Enugu State; Dr. Tanko Nana, Country Representative of OSIWA, among many others.

Declaring the workshop open, Justice Omo said Nigeria could address the problem of vulnerable prisoners. He called on NGOs in the country to continue to campaign for the promotion of citizens' rights. Earlier in her address, the Executive Director of PRAWA, Dr. (Mrs.) Uju Agomoh, described the workshop as one of the series of activities embarked upon by her organisation and OSIWA to assess the conditions of vulnerable prisoners, with a view to addressing them. She identified the commonest problems faced by juvenile prisoners, to include inadequate juvenile justice machinery, including courts and personnel, inadequate juvenile/young offenders' facilities, poor training on treatment of juveniles and inadequate legal instrument for the protection of young offenders.

The problems also include the presence of young offenders in adult prisons, lack of adequate educational facilities for young offenders and lack of involvement of the families in the treatment and resettlement programmes for young offenders. Also there is no comprehensive and upto-date data on juveniles in Nigeria. There are also instances where false and exaggerated ages have been stated in defendants remand warrants to facilitate their being accepted in custody by the prison authorities. On mentally ill prisoners, she said lack of specialised facilities either in prison or in psychiatric hospitals for management of their cases have been identified by experts as one of their commonest problems.

Also lack of specialised training for prison health workers on the treatment of the mentally ill in prison, lack of adequate collection of statistics on the number, charge/offence, type of illness and duration in custody as well as lack of proper assessment of present mental state of prisoners upon admission are other problems posed by this group. Figures obtained from five randomly selected states in Nigeria indicated that 29 mentally ill prisoners existed in those societies. She said both local and foreign statistics have indicated that women constitute the minorities within the criminal justice/penal system in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Perhaps because of this fact and their gender related insensitivity, the mainstream prison system often fails to address their peculiar needs. Generally, lack of or inadequate ante natal/post natal care, lack of adequate sanitary provisions, lack of family visiting centres/children creche, lack of adequate educational/occupational skills and lack of gender sensitive training for criminal justice agents have been identified as some of the major problems facing this category of prisoners. As regards remand prisoners/ awaiting trial prisoners, she noted that both experience and statistics have shown that awaiting trial persons constitute the greatest number of prisoners in Nigeria. In fact, this figure has been estimated at more than 70 per cent. Generally, over crowding, lack of sleeping space, lack of bedding facilities, exclusion from training and educational activities, lack of adequate ventilation, lack of adequate classification and inadequate facilities.