ANALYSIS OF THE RIGHTS OF INMATES

ABSTRACT

Prisons in many countries of the world are overcrowded and congested, have decaying infrastructure, lack hygiene and adequate health facilities, and, as such, prisoner’s health and life are in danger. An attempt to analyze the rights of inmates in Kaura Namoda Satalite prison is the major objective. Moreover, survey research was used for the purpose of the study which adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. It samples the entire population in the prison (80 respondents) and makes use of questionnaire and interview methods for data collection. The findings of this shows that inmates rights on the average are respected and do not suffer wide range of violation as established by other researchers, for example it was gathered that about 63(78.8%) respondents said they are not faced with this problem, only 17(21.3%) said they are confronted with rights violation. So this reveal that most of the inmates enjoy certain rights, also some inmates statements made research understand that in most cases their rights are often violated with reason, either to protect others from being injured by an inmate’s or to prevent future occurrence of particular act. The institution of prison is set up for the purpose of rehabilitating inmates. Even though this goal is not met, there is the need for the government to review and reform the rules which guide the prison to conform to the international standard.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” UDHR (1948; 111). The rights addressed here are those inherent in dignity in the concept of worth and value of a man as human being. Rodley (1999), observed that as good as these rights are entitled to human being; it is not totally clear whether inmates or prisoners have recognizable rights embracing this dignity of human person. This is traceable to the United Kingdom when in (1988), the bill of rights aptly outlaw cruel and unusual treatment, set stage for a universal standard for the treatment of prisoners in detention. America proclaims such rights, Canada in its charter replicated same, and South Africa represents a good example of a constitutional democracy that incorporates such ideals. Nigeria and most other countries who albeit do not incorporate but recognize that prisoners be treated with human respect. Human rights are those accrued to one because they are human being. These rights are equal and inalienable to all human beings (Donnelly, 1999). In this respect, international human rights instrument recognize such rights; a typical example is the minimum standard rule which set minimum standard for the treatment of prisoners.