Lagos State has the highest number of prisoners in Nigeria, housing 7,396 out of the national total of 68,686, according to a new data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. The data revealed that the Lagos prison has a capacity for 3,927 prisoners, indicating that it is almost 100 per cent overfilled. Lagos is closely followed by Rivers and Kano States with 4,424 and 4,183 prison inmates population. Rivers has one of the worst prisoner congestion ratio as it can take only 1,354, compared to the 4,424 prisoners it accommodates at present. Bayelsa and Ekiti states have the lowest numbers of prisoners, with 444 and 585 as at last year. The NBS Prison Statistics catalogued Prison Population by Total Detainees, Prison Capacity and Number of Un-sentenced Detainees by State and Year and Prison Inmate Population by Gender from 2011 to 2016. The study showed that there are far more men in prisons than women. While male inmates last year were 67,329, the women were 1,357. The gender ratio in 2015 was similar, 63,668 to 1,357. NBS data shows that 59,940 Christians were incarcerated in the two year period, in contrast with 71,402 muslims. The number of traditionalists, atheists and others was 11,506.

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