Abuja — The Federal Government weekend pegged the ultimate cost of the on-going reform programme in the nation's prisons at N15bn.

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo who made the disclosure to THISDAY in Abuja, also allayed fears that the reform would compound the problem of crime in the country.

Ojo assured that hardened criminals would be taken to halfway houses in each of the six go-political zones for rehabilitation and subsequent re-integration into the society.

According to him, 'If you want to reform the entire prisons today, holistically, it will take a minimum of N10 to 15bn. That is what I would say'. He, however said, 'We need N8bn from international funding. That is what will be needed for the work, which the committee wants to do'.

He said the Minister of Internal Affairs was already working on the halfway houses project for which he confirmed government had released funds, adding that the ministry should be able to conclude work on that very soon.

Ojo stated, 'We came with the idea of these halfway houses, that we should establish halfway houses in each of the six geo-political zones of the country, whereby these people that cannot be prosecuted and also cannot be released will be put there, will get qualified personnel to counsel them, be with them, teach them a trade and after about two years, they would have been fully debriefed and then they can be reintegrated back into the society.

So, this has been approved and it is on-going., The Minister of Internal Affairs is already doing something as far as the halfways houses are concerned and then on the issue of decongestion itself, we firmed out over 10,000 cases to private practitioners and massive releases are going on at different stages nowî.

Ojo disclosed that a massive decongestion of the prisons has begun and explained, ìthe massive decongestion we are doing is multi-faceted: First we are releasing those who have stayed in prisons for longer than the period they would have served if they were convicted; secondly, those who do not have prosecutors and defence lawyers, we are providing lawyers for themî.

He said a whopping N5 billion would go into the payment for services rendered by a little over 1,000 lawyers from private practice had been hired to prosecute and defend the inmates in all the states and the additional 1,500 lawyers that would be engaged.

The Attorney General further said that over 10,000 cases had been given to private lawyers to handle with a view to accelerating the releases of the inmates who could not afford to pay for services of counsel.

Reacting to concern that the release of these inmates into the free world could worsen the crime situation in the country, Ojo said ìWe pray that releasing those who have served their terms into the free world would not compound the problem of crime in the country., We believe that such people can still be salvaged on their own and can still be useful citizens in the countryî.

Appraising the efforts so far invested in the prison reforms, he said, ìAt the time I was appointed, the National Working Group, which did a study nationally on the 227 prisons nationwide had just concluded its work and they came out with a very shocking report that out of the 227 prisons they went round, a total of 40, 444 inmates were in all the prisons nationwide whether urban or satellite prisons.