July 19, (THEWILL) – The Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (RoLAC II), on Thursday, in Kano, held a town hall meeting with relevant stakeholders for the dissemination of Non-Custodial Measures strategies across the justice sector.
The objectives of the meeting are to promote a deeper understanding of non-custodial measures, probation, suspended sentences, their utility, and the opportunities that exist for their utilisation in the context of the Nigerian Criminal Justice process, particularly in Kano State.
Other objectives include: encouraging wider use of these mechanisms in the dispensation of criminal justice.
In her presentation titled: “Understanding Non-Custodial Measures”, Prof. Uju Agomoh, Executive Director of PRAWA and RoLAC/International IDEA Consultant, highlighted the need to implement non-custodial measures to achieve the desired goals of inmate decongestion in correctional facilities.
Prof. Agomoh said states in Nigeria have the mandate to play a key role in terms of utilising Nigerian Correctional Centres, citing the enactment of the Kano State Correctional Service Bill.
She emphasised that the role of stakeholders in supporting and improving the structures for service reforms can never be overemphasised.
She said Custodial Services are like playing back inmates to society to heal the wound of a crime within society, while probation is looking at the offender to reduce the risk in the future.
Prof. Agomoh added that Parole is looking at inmates who have been sentenced to various terms but found to be of good behaviour.
According to her, the Administration of Justice is also an opportunity for victims of offences to be involved in the dispensation of justice.
She said the town hall meeting underscored the need to promote the integration of inmates into society to have corrective measures, rehabilitation, and decongestion of facilities.
Agomoh, therefore, urged the participants to disseminate the resolutions of the meeting to their various institutions in order to achieve the desired goals.
Earlier, RoLAC II State Project Coordinator, Malam Ibrahim Bello, in his opening remarks, said the program would support the Kano State Government and its institutions to lay a good foundation for its future Correctional Facility.
“RoLAC II finds it necessary to support the state government and its institutions to lay a good foundation for the future state correctional facility by promoting non-custodial measures in the operations of correctional facilities when it comes into operations”, Bello said.
He said this is necessary in order to “avoid the pitfalls of the rising trend of congestion of the facilities with inmates.”
Therefore, the objective of the Town Hall is to deepen the understanding of the stakeholders on non-custodial measures such as community services, parole, and suspended sentences.
“We thank all stakeholders for coming, especially the Deputy Controller of Corrections, the DCR Hugh, and the DPP from the ministry, the representatives of the Law Enforcement agencies as well as Community leaders, CSOs, and the media”, the State Coordinator added.
Abdullahi Yusuf is a seasoned journalist, communicator and was previously the Deputy Editor-In-Chief and Zonal Manager, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Jos, where he retired on December 15, 2021
