Thread by @ECOnuoha

This is a very very very serious issue that needs to be looked at and addressed. A prison with a capacity of 638 holds 2077 persons. Most of them are not convicts. Most, close to 80% are people whose cases are still in court, normally called Awaiting Trial. #Thread A bit long

https://twitter.com/AmnestyNigeria/status/1245706298093711362

Section 36(5) of our Constitution presumes that every person charged with an offence is presumed innocent until a court says otherwise. It follows that in the eyes of our Law, more than 1,000 persons in Enugu prison are presumed innocent

The has made provisions for Bail. Bail is the release of a suspect or an accused person temporarily to competent sureties who will guarantee their presence whenever they are needed, either in the police station or in the court.

I will come back to the matter of Bail and how important it is in ensuring that we don’t have a jam packed prison, but before then, let me talk about the different categories of persons in our prison Enugu. Their category will explain why they are in Prison.

1. Convicts.
These are people whose trials have concluded, and a court found them guilty and sentenced them to either a term or imprisonment, life imprisonment or a death sentence. Some of the people given a term of improvement have options of fine. Option of fine means that ...

...though they have been found guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, if they pay a certain stated amount to the govt, they will be free to go home. This set of people are in prison basically because they cannot afford the option of fine given to them.

2. The second category of inmates are the Awaiting Trial inmates (ATI). The bulk of the people in Prison fall under this category. They are the reason why our prisons are ALWAYS congested. If the issue of ATI is solved, our prisons will function better.

There are different categories of ATIs.
a. There are some people who have been granted bail, but for some reasons cannot fulfil their bail conditions. When a court grants bail, a surety is required to sign a bail bond. A bail bond is an undertaking by the Surety that he will...

...ensure that the accused person attends court to stand trial. Bail bonds have an amount of money that the Surety will be made to forfeit to the government if he fails to produce the accused person. Some inmates have been granted bail, but because...

...there is nobody to sign their bail bond and take them on bail, they remain in prison and contribute to the congestion.

b. Another class of ATIs are people who have not been granted bail at all, and they are still standing trial. Criminal Trials in Nigeria take time.

On the average, a contested Criminal Trial takes between 5 to 10 years to conclude. Two weeks ago, I got Judgement in a Criminal Trial (Armed Robbery & Kidnapping) that started in 2010! Trial started in 2012, and Judgment delivered in March 2020!

So if for whatever reason a Court does not exercise discretion in favour of granting bail to people in this category, they will have a pretty long period of time to spend in prison while on trial. I know a young man who has been standing trial and in prison from 2013 till date.

The prosecution has just closed their case, and his defence is due to open. He has been in prison for 7 years! There are many like him. These sets of people who are on trial and have not been granted bail ARE THE PRIMARY REASON why our prison in Enugu is congested.

Let me come back to the issue of bail. By law, Bail is a matter of the discretion of the Court in most cases, no matter how serious the offence is. A Judge of a High Court has discretionary powers to grant bail in ALL CASES. In cases that attract capital punishment, Bail CAN ...

...be granted if there are “exceptional circumstances”. It is my view that our Judiciary has the powers to reduce the congestion at our prisons. Every year, the Chief Judge of Enugu state, pursuant to the powers of that office organizes “prison visits”, aimed at decongestion.

What we have always seen is that during such visits, corrupt Prison officials, due to corruption, will not bring the people who are the primary target of the prison visits before the judges. They receive bribe from people who do not stand a chance, and present them before ...

...the Judges to be released on bail. The Judges will see that they are not deserving of bail, and will rightly refuse bail. At the end of such exercise, only a handful of people will be released, and the prison will yet remain congested.

What can be done? I have an opinion...

RECOMMENDATION:

I have counted, and Enugu State has about 20 Judges, including the Chief Judge. I recommend that the Chief Judge directs the Registra of the High Court and Comptroller of Enugu Prison to liaise together and come up with a COMPREHENSIVE LIST of ALL inmates...

...who are standing trial. All the judges to devote 1 hour everyday to look at five cases per day. What they will be looking are
1. What offence is the accused standing trial for?
2. How long has the accused been in prison custody?
3. What stage is the trail at?

If the accused is standing trial for an offence that is not very serious, and has stayed for over 5 years in prison, and the stage of trial is not at an advanced stage, the Judges should release them on bail.

If 20 Judges consider 5 matters a day, 4 days a week, 400 inmates ...

...would have been considered. In 5 weeks, ALL inmates would have been considered, and deserving people released on bail.

I thank @AmnestyNigeria for inspiring this thread. I call on all relevant stakeholders to lend their voice to the plight of our inmates.

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