Ilorin — The Minister of Internal Affairs, Ambassador Magaji Mohammed, has expressed the Federal Government concern on the congestion of prisons in the country and attributed it to delay in the trial of inmates in courts.

At the commissioning of the Prisons Borstal Training Institution at Ilorin, the minister hinted that more than 60 per cent of inmates in prisons were those awaiting trial.

He however craved for a complete overhaul of the criminal and Judicial administrative system of the country, which he noted, would help in decongesting prisons across the country.

He said the Borstal-training institute, which is the second in the country, was government's response to the increasing number of young people who were getting involved in crime and criminal activities.

"Our children are our future leaders and it behoves on all of us to help them divert their aberrant youthful behaviour to positive attitudinal change."

With the commissioning of the institution, the minister stated that it has become necessary that young offenders be separated from adult prisoners and placed in a corrective training institution with a view to training them to become useful citizens.

Muhammad described the nation's prison policy as that of reformatory and rehabilitation of inmates and added that the government had taken some steps aimed at repositioning prisons across the country.

Some of the steps, he added, included the recent inauguration of the Prisons Reform Committee adding that government was already considering the various proposals for speedy completion of prisons projects and improvement of staff welfare and working conditions.

Calling on stakeholders to cooperate with the government in ensuring good training for children, the minister said the responsibility of training and reforming young offenders was a collective one.

In his address, the Acting Controller-General of Prisons, Mr. Okpara Kalu, said with the commissioning of the new institution, the Kaduna Borstal Institute, which presently had 426 young people would be decongested in order to creating an enabling environment for juvenile care and correction.

The new borstal, he dropped, has capacity for 200 inmates, which is mainly for boys.

It also has other facilities for educational programmes; skill and vocational training including courses in computer appreciation as well as counseling and psychotherapy treatment.