Disturbing neglect of children born in prison

INHOSPITABLE for inmates, Nigerian prisons are contending with another weighty albatross: that of children living in jail with their incarcerated mothers. The House of Representatives brought the issue to the fore at a plenary recently, pointing out that it was a recurring phenomenon. “A large number of children live in Nigerian prisons and detention centres throughout the federation, along with their imprisoned mothers,” a lawmaker, who quoted a report from African Union on the Rights and Welfare of the Nigerian Child, said. This is extremely disturbing.

If Nigerian prisons are dehumanising, even for the toughest of adults, it can be devastating for children. Accordingly, a tough future awaits these children who grow up in these brutal surroundings. It is disheartening and unfair for a child who has committed no offence to be subjected to cruel prison conditions.

Out of a prison population of 57,121 in October 2014, just 1,156 or two per cent, were women, according to the Nigerian Prisons Service. Yet, the AU report estimated that 6,000 innocent children were languishing in our jails in 2013. Experts and activists argue that sometimes, the offence committed by the detained women is not worth being detained or jailed for. But the police operate with impunity, arresting citizens on flimsy excuses.

The Lagos State Ministry of Justice says eight babies are currently living with their mothers in Lagos prisons, while nine inmates are pregnant. It did not disclose however how they got pregnant, which is a critical issue. A clergywoman, who visited Suleja Prisons in Niger State during the 2016 Easter, lamented the cruel fate befalling the children held there. “I was really shocked when I saw an eight-month-old baby (there). The woman lives on garri that outsiders provide for them. They don’t give them food. There are many children living in this condition in Nigerian prisons. I weep for this country,” she said. This is inhuman.

Apart from women who are sentenced to jail with pregnancy, the other salient point is female inmates who are not sentenced with pregnancy, but get impregnated in prison. Adams Jagaba, a Representative, said, “It’s an indication that some serious activities are taking place within the prison environment or what else can be the explanation?” Of course, this raises some posers. Are male and female detainees staying together? Are the inmates impregnated by fellow male inmates or prison officials? Or, is it that officials allow outsiders to enter the prison at odd hours to sleep with the inmates?

The situation of the concerned children is pathetic. While the prisons are seriously overcrowded, their mothers cannot feed them properly because they too are hungry. Peter Ekpendu, the NPS Comptroller-General, told the National Assembly in February that inmates were fed on N222.30 kobo each per day.  Also, the children, through no fault of theirs, begin life without education. Thus, they are condemned to illiteracy and despair. With no skills to fall back on later in life, they distrust the society and end up as misfits. They might even take to a life of crime. With 10.5 million, according to UNICEF estimates in 2015, Nigeria harbours the highest number of out-of-school children.

This is a terrible way to raise children. It is not right to foreclose the future of these children, as some of them can turn out to be extraordinary if given an opportunity to receive an education. Therefore, the Nigerian state should imbue them with hope by taking them out of jail, and putting them in special centres where something good can be made out of their lives. This is the case in many jurisdictions of the world when women fall foul of the law. To make these children belong, Canada instituted the Mother-Child Programme in 2001. Alberta, a province in Canada, has gone further to implement video conference visits and longer visiting hours of mothers to the correction centres, which accommodate the children. The authorities in South Africa deal with the issue by finding a proper placement elsewhere for the children of inmates and by running a mother and child unit to accommodate inmates with children.

To be fair, since the authorities opened up the prison system to religious and humanitarian organisations over a decade ago, the rate of death has fallen from 1,500 a year in the late 1980s to 89 deaths in 2003, going by data from human rights groups. Nigerian prison rules permit a child to be taken out of prison at 18 months, but many of the prisoners have been abandoned to their fate by their families and the society, making the children to languish with them in jail. Thus, we need to do something different. In Germany for example, a former Bayern Munich president, Uli Hoeness, who recently completed a three-and-a-half-year jail term for tax evasion, was allowed to engage in day-time work at the same football club, coming from prison every morning and returning there at night. He was released 21 months earlier.

We urge the Ministries, Agencies and Departments concerned to redouble their efforts to ensure the resettlement of these innocent children. To reduce incidence of children living with their mothers in jail, the Nigerian government should give female suspects quick trials. Those who are convicted but are of good behaviour can be granted early release. Governors, chief judges, the NPS CG and the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, must also review the cases of women, some of whom are incarcerated on spurious charges, or might have completed the jail terms for their offences had they been speedily tried. The Ministry of Interior must get to the bottom of female prisoners becoming pregnant in prison with a thorough investigation.

The prison is primarily a correction centre, but here, it is not so yet. Riots and jail-breaks are common because of adverse prison conditions. The Federal Government cannot gloss over the issue again. The Muhammadu Buhari Administration should carry out a comprehensive reform and incorporate community service and suspended sentence into our system as a means of decongesting our dehumanising, overcrowded cells.