Inside Oregun Juvenile Corrective Home

Located at the intersection of Kudirat Abiola road and Opebi bye-pass in the Oregun-Ikeja area of Lagos, the Oregun Juvenile Corrective Home, formally called the Special Correctional Centre for Boys, has over the years provided social services to children in Lagos. Its isolated entrance betrays the human presence and activities going on in the massive […]

Located at the intersection of Kudirat Abiola road and Opebi bye-pass in the Oregun-Ikeja area of Lagos, the Oregun Juvenile Corrective Home, formally called the Special Correctional Centre for Boys, has over the years provided social services to children in Lagos. Its isolated entrance betrays the human presence and activities going on in the massive two plots of land which house the home. The 39-year old corrective centre was designed to house and correct ‘troublesome’ children before they are allowed to rejoin the larger society.
The issue of a corrective home for delinquent children was mooted during the colonial era and was actualised in Lagos with the establishment of the remand home in 1942 on Lagos Island. The home was later moved to Sabo, Yaba and then to Oregun in 1976 where it is still situated and managed by the Lagos State government through the Social Welfare Department. The centre was called a remand home until 2007 when the Lagos State government adopted the Child Rights Act and changed the nomenclature from remand home to special correctional centre.
“There was no school or vocational training at the centre when it was a remand home. Then, there was no intervention at all; the wards were just kept here. But now, any child that is brought to the home has to be in school, learn vocations and attend computer classes. All these interventions now make the home a special correctional centre so that if the wards leave the centre, they can be free of delinquent attitudes,” a senior official of the home told our correspondents.
The serenity, orderliness, positive attitude to learning and exhibition of decorum by students in the home are manifestations that their delinquency has not only being worked on by the authorities, but the society may have also been saved from a looming menace.
Our correspondents who went round the home and the school inside, observed that there were tailoring and printing sections which serve the home alone. The chief inspector at the tailoring section said students’ uniforms and sometimes the staff’s attires are sown at the section in order to enhance the skill of the students in the art of tailoring.
Also, most documents used in the school are produced at the printing section in order to deepen the knowledge of the students in printing and minimize cost. The school also has a store, kitchen, dormitory, basketball and handball courts, all of which re-creates and enhances the skills and abilities of the students.
Besides, the home boasts of a multi-purpose hall and a common room which sometimes serve as praying grounds for the Christians and Muslims among the students. Our correspondents gathered that the Christians ‘solidarise’ with the Muslims to observe fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.
The number of children in the home at a particular time fluctuates, but there are currently 138 students with 10 social workers at the home. But how does a child get into the home?
The senior official who requested anonymity told our correspondents that admission into the home is through the courts, mostly from the 11 Family Courts in Lagos State. He added that admission into the home is guaranteed under the Child Rights Act. 
He said: “Any ward that has to be admitted into the centre must have legal backing with what we call Care Order which we get through the courts. We can’t admit any ward without the Care Order because the ward’s stay here has to be legalized. If a child is found to be delinquent or has committed an offence against the law, the child is taken to court and for the fact that he is underage, he is brought here with the Care Order. Continued from page 39

“If any of the children brought here still have cases in court, we take them to court during their court days and there are provisional officers in charge of their cases apart from the correctional officers. So, our duties also include taking them to courts. We release them based on court order as well because a child that comes into the centre through a court cannot be released without court directive as well, though we conduct due diligence and social inquiry before keeping the children at the home,” he said.
The official further stated that the wards go through normal academic session and vocational training, as well as social counseling, adding that the school sometimes does home tracing of the wards’ parents or families to let them know that their children are in the corrective home.
 “Through the home tracing, we may be able to get the address of the parents and there are conditions that courts mandate us to give the parents when the wards are about to be released, conditions such as the parents ensuring that they put the wards in secured schools.
 “This is important because if a child is not meaningfully engaged, he can go back to the streets or become delinquent again. If the child is not good in academics, he must be put in a vocational class or a workshop to learn something that will keep him busy,” he said.
Does the home keep record of the students who were really ‘reformed’ and now shining examples to the home and the country in general?
The official answered in the affirmative. “We have a lot of them who were released from the centre and are successful and we have cases of those that also go back to streets but the success rate is higher. We have a role model programme whereby we invite those who have passed through here to come and narrate their experiences to us.”
He added that though the home was getting requisite aid from well-meaning Nigerians to complement government efforts at turning delinquent children to useful citizens, the assistance may not be enough given the increasing size of the students in the home which is asymmetrical to the number of social workers and the facilities therein.
“Religious organisations and corporate firms come here to donate food items, toiletries and the like to us to complement government efforts and what the school is doing, but we need more and will appreciate if more donations come our way,” he stated.
From all indications, the Oregun Juvenile Corrective Home needs more to be able to give ‘better life’ to the children at the home.