Bishop Kayode Williams

Bishop Kayode Williams ,Prison rehabilitation policiesl

*Says Nigeria ripe for a prison commission

By Funke Cole

Renowned clergyman Bishop Kayode Williams, has called for the strengthening of prison rehabilitation policies across the country.

Bishop Williams, who is the Director General, Prison Rehabilitation Mission International Inc., gave this advice at a public forum recently.

According to him, the country was ripe for a commission solely dedicated to the affairs of correctional and custodial activities.

While reiterating his position on idea of the commissioning of a proper and adequate agency to strictly manage the affairs of prisons in the country, he noted the missing dots which according to him, the authorities have not been able to effectively confront.

He said that the pursuit of such an agency will help to tackle the problem posing as obstacles to the issue of prison reforms and rehabilitation as well as reintegration of inmates into the country’s mainstream workforce.

He advised the government to work on developing a conducive atmosphere that will ensure stability in the prisons establishment, noting that the dividends of such pragmatic approach will curb crime rates associated with unemployment.

While acknowledging the daunting tasks the present Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has undertaken in recent months in ensuring the well-being of the inmates across several correctional centres in the country, Bishop Williams stated that there is still a widening gap as a result of the long years of neglect by successive administrations.

Noting that the Nigerian prison system requires a transition that would allow the inmates to reintegrate themselves better into society without returning to crime, Williams, who did a comparative analysis of correctional centres in other climes said there is need for an exclusive commission to cater for the concerns of the inmates if the government is serious about curtailing crime rates across the country.

Williams said the federal government need not break the bank to do this as the correctional centres, if properly constituted like their counterparts elsewhere, can be self-sufficient, profit oriented and offer life-changing experience for both felons and the custodial officers themselves.

Echoing similar sentiments, Dr Silas Falokun, the Regional Director of PREMI, North and South America, also called for the provision of productive engagement for the inmates across the correctional centres in Nigeria.

Falokun, who is a senior staff at Texas Department of Criminal Justice in the United States, described the annual budget allocation and subventions to correctional centres as wasteful, noting that productive engagement of the inmates could transform the prison into a self-funding system.

“Prison in Texas is a business. We have people who come in for various reasons. When they come in, they don’t just sit down and wait for the government to budget money to feed them. This is where idiosyncrasy is in Nigeria. How can you keep able-bodied men and women in prison? You keep them in prison, feed them, and they wake up in the morning and gang up to plan evil things. They sit all day, idling around. An idle hand is the devil’s workshop. These prisoners are crafty. They are intelligent,” he said.

Expatiating, Falokun stated that the amount of help the correctional centres in Nigeria receive is staggering, hence why the government of today needs to rise to the occasion of saving the face of prisons in Nigeria.

Dr. Falokun therefore appealed to the federal government to allow PREMI work around remodelling the correctional facilities in Nigeria.

In his words, “We want to bring our correctional centres to a stage where you have to be productive and not be a liability to the government.We want to organise classes for our inmates. We want to partner with the people to make necessary changes in the lives of prisoners so that prisoners won’t be left to suffer in prison.”