Summary and Recommendations

185 participate in group counselling and similar activities; pay, a fine, damages, compensation or costs or undertake community service under supervision or the court may order the parents or guardian of the child offender to pay a fine, damages, compensation or costs, or give security of his good behaviour or enter into a recognisance to take proper care of him and exercise proper control over him or making an order concerning foster care, guardianship, living in a community or other educational settings.⁴⁵⁶

Generally, the Nigerian criminal justice system provides a reasonable number of options of non-institutional treatments including but not limited to: fines, caning, probation, binding over orders, forfeiture of assets, plea bargaining, compensation, undertaking to be of good behaviour, and condonation. These options especially fines, compensation, forfeiture of assets, caning and condonation, have their roots buried deep in law of Jurisprudence.⁴⁵⁷

186 there are preferences among some writers as to non-institutional correction over institutional correction, as discussed earlier, not all cases will non-institutional correction tackle. A controversial criminal can be a threat to the society and the need to confine him or her to an institution for correction is the best or better option. A child in an environment known for prevalence of crime can be removed and put in an institution for reformation. Put differently, the nature of the offence and other factors such as the environment or the circumstance of the child may be a determining factor as to the choice of which of the measures will better suit and serve the purpose at hand.

Even when the court has adopted an institutional correction as the appropriate mode in a circumstance, there is also the need to choose the appropriate facility that will suit the situation of the child offender. For example, it was reported that in the United States of America, when child offenders are placed under the residential supervision of a state department of youth services, they usually are temporarily sent to a reception and diagnostic centre. At these centres, children or juveniles receive psychological, educational level and risk assessment to determine the type of facility to which they should be assigned. After a few months at the reception centres, they are placed in a long-term confinement facility, often called training or a reform school.⁴⁵⁹

However, there are problems usually encountered which frustrate the reformation measures. One of such challenges is usually the problem of overcrowding, due to lack of well –established and adequately equipped institutions, and coherent programs for treating juvenile offenders and preventing juvenile delinquency in Nigeria. Existing institutions owned by government are those inherited from the colonial masters, and which do not suit the present child justice system and thus do not conform to international standards. The researcher agrees with Austin et al that overcrowding results in dangerous conditions that

459 R P Seiter, op cit, p277.

187 make the facility management difficult, can be detrimental to rehabilitation and treatment of youths, and creates logical problems in feeding, health care delivery, and space to sleep.⁴⁶⁰

Overcrowding occur where there are inadequate facilities to accommodate the inmates. In Nigeria, it is observed that, there is lack of adequate custodial institutions, both at the State and federal levels, which seriously affects the objectives of reformation of child offenders. Further still, in view of the increasing rate of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria, the consistent problem encountered in the institutions is usually overcrowding, which will affect every other activity. For instance, there are only three borstals Institutions established by the Federal Government at Kaduna, Abeokuta and Ilorin, and few other government owned remand homes across the Country: Sapele in Delta State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Ogun State, Oregun in Lagos State which is now known as Oregun Special Correctional Center, Ngwo in Enugu State, Ibadan. There are no borstals or remand homes in Anambra State and even at the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. In the absence of remand home in a State, child offenders may be sent to another State. For example: child offenders in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja are usually sent to Kaduna borstal remand home, While in Anambra State, there are instances where child offenders were sent to Kaduna remand home, Enugu remand homes, Kwara remand homes or other remand homes in other States. However, there are also instances where child offenders were sent to prisons.⁴⁶¹

According to Ehonwa, „the inadequacies in child custodial institutions reflect the insensitivity and lack of commitment of Nigerian government towards the protection and promotion of human rights and the dignity of the human person, and in particular to the

460 J. Austin, K D Johnson, R Weitzer, „Alternatives to the Secure Detention and Confinement of Juvenile Offenders‟, in Juvenile Justice Bulletin (Washington, D,C; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2005) p5.

461 Information obtained during visits to the Courts in Abuja and Anambra State by the Researcher.

188 welfare of suspects and convicts. Those inadequacies are extension of conditions in the adult prisons that have been neglected for long.⁴⁶²

Bearing in mind the purport or aim of institutionalisation towards treating child delinquency, government should address the issues of lack of institutions and challenges encountered in institutions. An institution devoid of the infrastructure and conditions for rehabilitation defeats the aim. Lack of commitment by government towards its role to the citizens is one of the key challenges. Various infrastructure and programs ought to be provided for the children for their reformation and well-being. These facilities are very important, especially with respect to education, as most children in the institutions are still of school age and have not contemplated their schooling and therefore should participate in the general educational development programs in the institutions. Vocational training is also important and should involve a variety of skills that can lead to employment after release.

Adequate health care, adequate feeding, hygienic environment should also be available in institutions, as well as religious counselling and instruction. It is submitted that the Government owe children in corrective institutions care and protection otherwise it is a violation of the children‟s right to health, nutrition, education and recreation, which the correctional institutions should promote. Lack of basic standard of welfare in the institutions will defeat the aim, and may turn the children into recidivists instead of reforming them.

Therefore there is need for establishment of adequate correctional institutions in Nigeria to check: overcrowding, poor living conditions, and inadequate infrastructure for rehabilitation.

There are also problems of insufficient and untrained personnel in the institutions which should be addressed. A report on the condition of remand homes in Sapele Delta State and Port Harcourt respectively on this issue is as follows:

462O L Ehonwa, „Behind the Walls‟(Lagos: Civil Liberties Organisations, 1996) in A K Ahmed, The Law and the Child in Nigeria (Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited, 2015) p164.

189 The treatment of juvenile offenders at Sapele and Port Harcourt are

reflective of the national attitude towards children in correctional homes. Their conditions are not remarkably different from those of adults in conflict with the law. Like the prisons, the few remand homes in the country are more or less oppressive institutions aimed at punishing offenders rather than rehabilitating them. The institutions are decrepit, ill-equipped and the inmates are ill-fed. They are denied humane treatment and have no access to recreational and sporting activities. ⁴⁶³

Nevertheless, the Oregun remand home in Lagos State which has been converted to a correctional institutions according has been reformed to offer schooling, vocational training, and computer classes for inmates. These facilities were not in existence as at when it was a remand home. The institution has sporting facilities for recreation and common room for prayers. The institution is not overcrowded, and has living condition to some reasonable extent. Admission into the home is through corrective orders from the Family courts in Lagos State. The effort by the Lagos State government towards the implementation of the CRL is commendable. This is in consonance with the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty 1990, which requires juveniles deprived of their liberty to have a right to facilities and services that meet all the requirements of health and human dignity. The design of detention facilities for juveniles and the physical environment should be in keeping with the rehabilitative aim of residential treatment, with due regard to the need of the juvenile for privacy, sensory stimuli, opportunities for association with peers and participation in sports, physical exercise and leisure-time activities.⁴⁶⁴ These conditions are

463 This Day, The Challenges of Remand Homes, <https://www.thisdaylive.com.challenges of remand homes>.accessed on 4/1/2018.

464 United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty 1990, Article 32.

190 very important in view of the purpose and aim of institutional correction which according to the Beijing Rules is to train and treat the juveniles, which involves providing care, protection, education, and vocational skills, with a view to assisting them to assume socially constructive and productive roles in society.⁴⁶⁵

The provision of the CRA⁴⁶⁶ is in all fours with the above provisions. It provides that the objective of training and treatment of a child offender placed in an institution shall be to provide care, protection, education, and vocational skill with a view to assisting the socially constructive and productive roles of the society. It went further to provide that a child offender in an institution shall be given care, protection, and all necessary assistance including social, educational, vocational, psychological, medical and physical assistance that may require, having regard to his or her age, sex, personality and in the interest of his development. A female child offender placed in an institution shall be treated fairly, receive no less care, protection, assistance, treatment, and training than a male child, and be given special attention as to her personal needs and problems. The parents and guardian of the child offender placed in an institution shall have the right of access to the child in the interest and well–being of the child. Inter-ministerial and Inter-department co-operation shall be encouraged for the purposes of providing adequate academic or vocational training for any child offender placed in an institution to ensure that the child does not leave the institution at an educational disadvantage.⁴⁶⁷

465 United Nations Standards Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice(the Beijing Rules), Adopted by General Assembly resolution 40/33 of 29 November 1985. Article, 26.

466 CRA, s 236(1).

467 Ibid, s 236(2-5).

191 4.4 Correctional Institutions for Children in Nigeria and their Roles towards Promoting

Child’s Rights

The two basic legislations for the regulation of the child‟s right in Nigeria: the Children and Young Person‟s Act, and the Child Rights Act which is the latest and is to repeal the former, made provisions for custodial corrections and the various facilities for that purpose as follows: