NGO rallies state govs on prison reform

A justice reform organisation, the Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), has called on states governors to upgrade prison facilities located in their state.  A statement issued yesterday by the executive director of CURE, Sylvester Uhaa, urged states to provide facilities to prison formations in their state. In a reaction to reports that […]

A justice reform organisation, the Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), has called on states governors to upgrade prison facilities located in their state.

 A statement issued yesterday by the executive director of CURE, Sylvester Uhaa, urged states to provide facilities to prison formations in their state.

In a reaction to reports that the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, had donated 200 patrol vehicles to the police to tame the rising wave of kidnapping and other crimes in the state, the statement said that prisons have been neglected. 

“This is not the first time a state governor has donated this number of vehicles to the police, without donating even one to the prisons,” the statement said. “Most prisons located in these states do not have vehicles to convey inmates to courts, adding to the delay in the dispensation of justice and prison congestion, leading to jail breaks and other security issues.”

It condemned the exclusion of prisons controllers from meeting of the state security council, saying that prison inmates deserved assistance in areas of justice, education, training, rehabilitation and reintegration into.

 The statement called on “the governors to exert pressure on the chief justice to visit the prisons for jail delivery at least twice a year to review cases and free those who have no business being in prison and ask the attorneys-general and DPP to do their job.”