Authorities of the Nigerian Correctional Service have said some families ostracize their relations who have been sent to custodial centres to serve jail terms.
They, however, condemned the development, saying that stigmatising ex-convicts or awaiting trial inmates would have dire consequences on the society at large.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with The Point, the Controller, Nigerian Correctional Service, Kwara State Command, Dan Ayodeji Shuaib, said some families write-off their relations the moment they are being remanded in correctional centres, urging them to desist from such attitude.
According to him, not giving inmates shoulders to lean on is a negative signal to them that they are no longer welcomed in the society after serving their imprisonment terms or being discharged, saying it has a tendency of making ex-inmates go hardened.
While reacting to the recent release of some inmates whose fines were paid by a non-governmental organisation, Shuaib noted that not all those who have been remanded in Correctional custody actually committed the offences they were alleged to have committed.
He lamented that many inmates are still languishing in prisons because their family members have abandoned them, adding that if family members of convicts who were given the option of fines had come to their assistance, they would have left the custodial centres.
Describing many of the inmates in the correctional facilities as “indigent and vulnerable”, the Correctional Centre boss hinted that there is still a future ahead for former prison inmates if they are given necessary support and closure, especially by their family members.
“Some of these inmates only need minimum amounts that would have secured their freedom, but they could not have it because they have been ostracised by their families and nobody wants to have any form of relationship with them again. Even the ones that their fines were paid, we knew what we underwent to ensure that their families were here and so that we could reconcile them with their family members so that they can give them a new lease of life.
“We call on other well-meaning Nigerians to come to our aid so that all these people will not continue to languish in our facilities any longer. What Anchor Heritage does that is different from others is in the area of training them so that while they were trained in the custody, by the time they now have the opportunity of going out, they would not go into crime and criminalities any longer. They would be able to fend for themselves and live a kind of life worthy of emulation and that is free from crime and criminalities. We want corporate individuals and NGO to come to our aid in this direction,” he appealed to stakeholders.
Educating members of the public on change of mindset on the kind of perception they have about inmates of correctional facilities, the controller said, “What we should always have at the back of our mind is that it is not everybody that finds themselves in a correctional centre or facilities that has really committed such an offence. The larger percentage of those in our facilities today is the awaiting trials and the awaiting trials are presumed innocent until they are proved otherwise by a court of competent jurisdiction
“And so, if such a person or such people are there like that, they have not been pronounced in that manner, they will require one or two things that they need to perfect their bail conditions so that they can leave the facilities and continue their lives again. That would be better for us, the society and the family.
“Some of these people (inmates) are learning different trades, some of them are still in school. To the best of my knowledge, we have about three or four inmates that are undergoing PhD in our custody today. And so, I want to believe if such people have the opportunity of leaving our custodial centre, they can never go back to crime and criminalities again.
“The worst that can happen is that some of them will be lecturers in private universities and they can fend for themselves. They can contribute their own quota to the development of the society. So, they should not just be left in there thinking that it is the end of their lives. They are part and parcel of our society, and we should see how we can give them a kind of leverage, give them shoulders to lean on so that they can come back again and leave a better life as different to the time before they were being brought to the custodial facility.
“So, our people have a lot of things to do in that direction. Let us leave the archaic belief that once someone comes to the custodial facility, then he should be ostracised, he should not be part of us again. Joseph in the Bible never committed the offence before he was taken to the prison but because to fulfill God’s mission on him, he found himself there and from the prison, he became the Prime Minister.
“If they never knew Joseph in the Bible that time, we know Obasanjo in Nigeria. Obasanjo was a former military Head of State, he left the military head of state, he retired and came to the prison, from the prison, he became civilian President, not because he committed the offence but God wanted to prove certain things in an individual’s life. You can better be part of us in enlightening people to ensure that family members and members of the society in general give a shoulder to these indigent and vulnerable set of people to lean on.”
