Better Prisons for Nigeria

Nigerian Prisons have several problems:

1. Overcrowded

2. People are held there for years without trial

3. Extra-judicials killings by the cops

4. Society does not believe that prisons actually work. So they prefer jungle justice to sending people there

5. No food provided to prisoners

6. People get imprisoned and never released because their cases are lost

I propose a solution. Rather than the hundreds of prisons dotted all around the country, a new prison town should be constructed in the most deserted part of the country. This prison town will consist of a large prison complex, an army training station beside it and a police training station beside it. In front of it, there will be a town which is open to anyone to stay, with the targeted groups being NGOs, concerned citizens and other volunteers. The prison town will have a good number of fast-track courts that hear the cases of prisoners and decide if they can be released.

All prisoners who arrive there will work daily to build the town. The town will basically bootstrap itself - the government will build about 5 blocks, then the first prisoners that arrive there will be trained how to mould blocks and will start building the other prison blocks. They will also build the army and police training stations beside it.

Prisoners who are unable to do physical labour will be put towards making clothes.

The advantage to this system is that the entire prison activity is concentrated in one location. Prisoners who are ‘lost’ have access to the NGOs to plead their case. Additionally, concerned nigerians have access to the prisoners to help those in need. The prisons can always grow in size to accomodate more prisoners.

Additionally, the prisoners can be taught courses and trained on how to be productive to the economy. The NGOs just need to build schools in the prison town.

And finally, prison labour will create a local textile industry, and will prevent importation of the goods, keeping money in the country.