Many of us do not think or talk about the Nigerian prison, let alone about what may be called our “prison system”. Well, it is time.

The Nigerian prison system, perhaps like our criminal justice system, is in some kind of political time warp. There are no State institutions; only the federation operates prisons. According to the NPS, as of October 2014 there were 240 prisons nationwide; 155 of them(mostly in the South), are “convict prisons” of the “maximum” or “medium” configuration.

The other category, the “satellite prisons”, is described as “intermediate prison camps set up mainly in areas with courts that are far from the main prisons.” Most of those are in the Northern part of the country, and they sometimes have capacity only for 20-50 persons. And now it gets really interesting.

According to the statistics published by the NPS, while Nigeria’s prisons have with a capacity to hold 50,153 persons, as of last October they were holding 57,121.

That is, they were holding nearly 7,000 more men and women than they have room for. What does that mean?

I can understand inmates having to take their meals or showers at different times so that the facilities can accommodate everyone, but do they also share beds and stagger sleeping times?

Do some of them sleep in corners and hallways and courtyards? Do they send surplus men to women’s prisons, or women into juvenile facilities?

There are further many fascinating questions in the prison statistics. Bayelsa and Ekiti, for instance, each has only one prison; followed by Abia, Imo, Oyo, Osun, Ebonyi and Benue which have two or three apiece.

And then there are States such as Bauchi, Cross River, Katsina, Kebbi,Jigawa, Kano and Taraba, which have between 10 and 13 each. Borno, Kaduna and Yobe have 15 each.

More at : http://9jamixinfo..com.ng/2016/02/inside-nigerias-prisons.html