The Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, (PRAWA)  and some key stakeholders have called on the need for the amendment of criminal laws and strengthened the use of virtual courts.

This is contained in a communique issued by the Executive Director, PRAWA, Dr Uju Agomoh at the end of a ‘two-day High-Level Conference on Decongestion and Corrections Administration in Nigeria.

Participants said the need to amend criminal laws, is part of the resolutions reached at the end of the conference in Abuja.

They also called for decongestion of correctional centres and relevant detention related reform initiatives at national and sub-national levels were part of the discussions

Participants stated the factors that bring about the high number of Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs) in custody are slow dispensation of justice especially for capital offenders.

They said that delay in prosecution of criminal cases, Lack of synergy between the arresting and prosecuting agencies, Non compliance with the provision of Section 12 of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Act among others.

;”We urge the government to provide adequate logistics to enable transportation of inmates to courts.

“We also urge the government to ensure training and retraining of the police and other law enforcement agents with the mandate to arrest and detain, courts and correctional service personnel.

“We are also calling on the government to take steps to ensure funding and budget allocation to stakeholders in the administration of criminal justice especially the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria.

“We strongly recommend the development of and implementation of diversionary programmes as provided for in the ACJA/ACJL, Child Rights Act and the Nigerian Correctional Service Act.

“We strongly recommend that laws need to be amended to reduce the kind of offenses that necessitate pretrial detention, “they said.

Participants also urged the government to take steps towards ensuring adequate financial provision for the correctional service to carry out its non-custodial supervision mandate.

They said that giving of fines as an option against imprisonment had not been very effective as some offenders of petty crimes were unable to pay the fines.

They further recommended the utilisation of other non-custodial sanctions and strongly encouraged the implementation of sections 37 and 38 of the NCoS Act on setting up the National committee on non-custodial measures.

“We strongly recommend the provision of rehabilitation and reintegration support for inmates; to include opening of bank accounts and provision of ATM cards, linkage with National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and SMEDAN.

“PRAWA is recommended to keep links with the beneficiaries for follow up support and monitoring.

“Also, we strongly encourage the adoption of a community-based approach to aid the reintegration of ex-inmates back into society, ” they said.

The conference was attended by participants drawn from relevant institutions and agencies of the criminal justice sector, development partners and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Discussions at the conference were targeted at development of effective, efficient and sustainable strategies for managing pretrial detention.