Inmates will henceforth be housed and fed by State Governments, according to Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola.
This development came after the most recent consultation revision that included Correctional Services to the list of concurrent services, said Aregbesola
The revelation was made by Aregbesola while he was addressing on Thursday in Abuja at a two-day High-Level Conference on Decongestion and Corrections Management.
The minister said: “This simply means that states are now empowered to establish their own Correctional Services and facilities.
“States which do not have correctional facilities would have to pay the Federal Government for the feeding and accommodation of their inmates.
The minister lamented that the huge amount was draining the coppers of the Federal Government.
“These facilities are being run by the Federal Government. It should be noted that the criminal justice system of Nigeria makes provisions for state and federal offences.
“However, until the amendment of the Constitution, only the Federal Government was in charge of custodial centres.
“With the amendment of the Constitution, states are now empowered to build correctional centres and facilities to house offenders who are convicted and sentenced for committing state offences.
“Where states are unable to build custodial centres, it is believed that they can suggest ways to collaborate with the Federal Government in feeding and housing these state offenders,’’ he added.
He furthered: “By the provision of the Act, the Controller-General, NCoS, is mandated to inform the head of the judiciary of when the custodial centres have exceeded their capacity
“This is necessary so that more offenders are not sent to the centres to serve their sentence. Where his information is not heeded, he is mandated to reject new inmates.
“It is hoped that the above measure will curb the dumping tendencies leading to overcrowding of the custodial centres.
“This will be by encouraging the payment of fines for simple offences, non-custodial sentencing and also building and construction of new correctional facilities,’’
