NGO canvasses adoption of community service as alternative to imprisonment

The Justice Development and Peace Movement of the Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, Ogun State, has suggested the introduction of community service as an alternative to imprisonment in Nigeria's justice system.The organisation gave the suggestion last week during an advocacy visit to the Ogun Council of the Correspondents' Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abeokuta.It lamented what it called 'the rot in Nigeria's Criminal Justice System', saying community service for minor offenders would drastically reduce prison congestion nationwide.Its Coordinator, Rev. Michael Adeogun, said that the organisation would sponsor a bill in the state House of Assembly to legalise the adoption of community service as punishment for certain categories of offences.According to him, 85 per cent of prison inmates in the country are awaiting trial with many spending years without any formal charge preffered against them in court.He said the problem of prisons congestion had not been effectively addressed because the police, courts and prison often trade blames over the issue.Adeogun added that the stigma of imprisonment had made employers of labour to deny many minor offenders job offers, thereby forcing them to inflict terror on the society in their desperation for survival.'Prison system is supposed to be a reformation system but it is not so in Nigeria. Prisons are in dilapidated and sub-human condition.'Some are in cell for minor offences like stealing of chicken and they are kept in prison for four or more years.'We discovered that in western countries there is alternative to prison punishment and that is community service.'If minor offenders are found guilty, they should be made to face the community which they offended,' he said. While highlighting the benefits of the service, Adeogun said young and minor offenders would not co-habit with adult or hardened criminals who could influence them to become hardened criminals.He said such measures would save the country money as it would reduce budgetary cost of maintaining prison cells.Adeogun urged Justices of Peace in the country to be more alive to their responsibilities by mediating in community disputes. 'Many Justices of Peace merely see themselves as traditional title holders when they are supposed to mediate in community issues.'They don't know what exactly to do with their titles.'We have met with the Ministry of Justice to let us see the possibility of revamping them and improve their capacity to intervene in certain cases so that not all the cases will be taken to police.
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