Corruption Eats Away Our Criminal Justice System

OWOLOLA ADEBOLA writes about official corruption within the criminal justice system, most especially the Prisons and concludes that everything needs be over-hauled.

Undoubtedly prisons in Lagos harbour no fewer that 700 inmates. Some of then have been condemned to death by the court that found them guilty. Few are serving jail terms while others fall within the bracket of those that are usually called Awaiting Trial Men [ATM].
Some of the detainees were picked up by security agents that they detainees have overstepped the bound of courtesy. In a way, that the accused as the case may be have had a tiff with the law. The prisoners actually have class. Some are being held for homicide related cases; some over 419; arson; e.t.c.
From which angle one looks at the matter, the development is usually followed by a written petition from the aggrieved person's counsel or lodgment of complain at the local police station from where preliminary investigations are conducted. Of course, it is not all the cases brought before the police that are usually investigated.
If a case is civil in nature, police may not entertain it. In other words, cases that are considered not to have fallen within their scope are usually referred to the appropriate authority. They do this to avoid unnecessary bickering from either of the parties. The police as an institution has no doubt recorded some degree of success most especially in the area of arrest and prosecution of offenders. The institution has continually helped to stem down the tide of criminality in the society.
They have excelled where others woefully failed. They have won medals where others merely participated. The police is the grandfather of all professions and vocations. But they are no angels because some of their activities are still circumspect. Perhaps it is because they are all human beings. Investigations revealed that when it comes to diligent prosecution of cases, there is usually a brick wall. Good as the intention of the Investigating Police Officers [IPO] may be, he is always there to do his job in a hurry. In this direction, his performance ratio is below average.
Perhaps, the police do not have the right caliber of personnel who could painstakingly investigate individual suspects whose cases fall within their purview or is it that something is administratively wrong with the system? Today, most of the homicide, and theft related cases that litter our  Courts across the country can never stand the test of trial partly because, the case files are faulty from the inception. Mind you that whenever a case is assigned to an average police officer, the first thought is not how to crack the case but what he would get  as an investigator.
This more often than not, led officer to collect money or other forms of inducement from both the complainant and the suspect. In this wise, the loyalty which is supposed to be to the state is thus divided. The court too has its own fair share of the blame. One could rightly or otherwise blame the court for sloppiness in the way cases are traditionally handled, and also the rate of adjournments.
Of course, a shoddily investigated case could only produce a related result because action and reaction are equal and opposite. It is quite understandable that judges have to preside over cases under atmosphere that are not conducive and often adjourned cases; however the throw-back effect of such a miasma is the swelling up of cases in courts which will in turn lead to prisons population explosion.
Many judges love to adjourn cases rather than speeding up hearing and the accused suffers because bail would never be granted. It is even on record that some judges rely much on the line of thinking of prosecutors/Investigating Police Officers [IPO] rather than their own independent mind. Ironically too, prison congestion obviously means more spending on the part of the government because government must at all time provide welfare for the inmates.
It is worthy of mentioning that inmates in the Nigerian prisons are not known to be productive-they largely consume without producing and are never engaged in community services as being practiced in some advanced countries of the world.
They are there pinning away for about 16 hours till nature gets hold of them. The economic danger inherent in allowing such a development is that the money that would have been spent on other productive ventures is geared towards the maintenance of indolent inmates.
That alone is not a good socio- economic planning bearing in mind that government must provide food, clothing materials, toiletries, medical, and sundry. It is therefore sane and safe to infer here that government can cut its expenditures on prisons maintenance if those whose cases are bail able are given a respite so far they have reasonable sureties with verifiable work place and addresses as the case may be.
It will actually go on in that order; both the wardens and wardresses would have little work to do in term of control of inmates -if the prison is moderately populated since we are not known to be a country that breeds criminals. The court should, as a matter of urgency reappraise the status of the offences of those being held behind the bars with the view to doing justice to their pending cases.
It is worthy of mentioning that the total money annually spent on a Nigerian detainee could send, at least ten sane persons to a world class university and this would add value to our learning system, improve standard of living, and reduce poverty. This would in effect mean technological advancement, which could ultimately lead to increased productivity. You do not need a soothsayer to tell you the level of corruption that has become the lots of the wardens and wardresses.
Today, the officials are feeding fat on the misfortunes of both the government who make provisions for the welfare of the condemned and the detainees themselves, most especially the Awaiting Trial Men [ATM] who have to eat grumps fallen from the tables of some Senior Prison Officers [SPO]. Checks revealed that the watchword of most of the prisons officials is that if a goat is tied to a post, it surely eats within its radius. Little wonder, visitors to detainees are usually fleeced by the officials who routinely collect tithes from them to ensure a free passage.
At the Nigerian prisons, most especially the ones in Lagos, it is a must for you to pay for a writing paper and pen; you even have to pay the messenger for him to deliver your message with professional éclat. Therefore, our criminal justice system is warped and it will take men and women of integrity to straighten things out. The police and other similar security agents saddled with the responsibility of maintaining law and order have to wake up. The judiciary must live up to expectation by being professional in its dealings most especially on matters that border on detainees whose liberties have been measured. Of course there are many innocent persons in our jail houses who ordinarily are not supposed to be there in the first instance.
There are many inept and corrupt individuals within the axis of the criminal justice system and authorities would be doing this country proud if such people could be fished out, and dealt with according to the law of the land. Every Nigerian should be taught the virtue of hard-work. Nigerians should be made to know that there is no gain in criminality except a long term incarceration or death.
Officials should at all time set good examples by shunning corruption at all time. We should all know that corruption corrodes integrity, devalues self-esteem, retards growth, and spells doom to a nation.