...the Dutch are closing prisons, Nigeria gropes in the dark
The dilapidated state of Nigeria’s correctional centres demonstrates a condition that cannot guarantee the reformatory process of the inmates. The disregard for welfare of inmates and failure to implement recommendations for prisons reform only worsens an already perilous situation.
Not less than five inmates were on Monday morning killed and 10 others injured by a loose electric cable inside the Ikoyi Correctional Centre, Lagos.
It was gathered that those injured were being treated at an undisclosed hospital. Although details of the incident were still sketchy at the time of this report, spokesman for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) in Lagos Rotimi Oladokun confirmed the incident.
He revealed that the Comptroller General of the NCoS Jaffaru Ahmed would yet brief the press on the incident.
The minister of interior confirmed the incident through a release issued by the press officer Jane Osuji on Monday as well a series of tweets on the ministry’s official Twitter handle.
“The attention of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been drawn to an electrocution incidence at the Ikoyi Medium Security Prison in Lagos,” the statement reads.
“The minister has directed a quick investigation into the root cause and the ministry will in the next few hours share a comprehensive update on the incident.
“While we commiserate with victims of the incident, the minister has ordered immediate medical attention for those affected.”
While Nigeria is still grapling with the basics, the Dutch Are Closing Their Prisons. The number of prisoners in the country has halved in a decade and experts say alternative sentencing programs can further decrease the number.
The Bijlmerbajes prison complex in Amsterdam, Netherlands, was closed in 2016 because of low crime rates in Netherlands. For 158 years, this was where the central Dutch city of Utrecht sent its prisoners. And then five years ago – along with almost half of the country’s prisons – it shut down.
A drop in the country’s crime rate in part explains why the Netherlands‘ prisons are emptying. A 2016 government study on capacity also noted that a focus on sentencing, with both an increase in shorter sentences and examining how crimes impact society, have helped reduce the prison population, says Wiebe Alkema, spokesperson at the Ministry of Justice and Security.
The Netherlands now has just 61 prisoners per 100,000 people in the general population, ranking among the lowest in Europe. In comparison, the United States has more than 10 times that figure (655 per 100,000), the highest in the world, according to data from the World Prison Brief, an online database hosted by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at the University of London. The Dutch justice department predicts that by 2023, the total prison population will drop to just 9,810 people.
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