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Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel has asked the Federal Government to review the state of facilities at all correctional centres in the country and reform them to become more decent for human habitation.
He made the call at the Presidential Committee on Correctional Service reform retreat in Uyo, saying since the name had been changed from prison, the environment of correctional centres should be more befitting, insisting that they should be reformed to make inmates come out better.
“So, I want to believe that the reform we will undertake or what the participants of the retreat will recommend to the Federal Government for approval will take cognizance of the environment.
“At times, when you visit correctional centres across the country, they are usually not so habitable for human beings. Therefore, let’s also look at how we can make them better.
“What can we offer to reshape this person, because these are Nigerians and we are actually keeping them there for them to be made better members of society,” he said.
He added that there should be improved skills acquisition centres in all correctional facilities to equip inmates to enable them to come out to be useful for themselves, noting that, inmates coming out of correctional centres after their jail terms should add value to themselves and the society.
Earlier, Chairman, Presidential Committee on Correctional Reforms and Decongestion, Justice Ishaq Bello, said the retreat would consider innovations to improve correctional centres.
Bello noted that the country should also adopt international best practices where it should avoid sending people to prison in every instance, as people could be sent to non-custodial centres where they are made to undergo hard labour instead of going to correctional centres.
“We must understand that there are certain categories of persons that must go to prison and there are others that don’t need to go to jail. What you need is to keep them in certain organisations to work and serve as punishment for them,” he said.
He added that the committee would ensure that innovations were brought to correctional centres, stressing that the retreat was to aimed at sensitising members of the public on possible innovations.
