Human Rights and The Treatment of Persons on Remand in Pre-Trial Detention

Abstract

The issue of human rights violations has been at the forefront of most discussions in Nigeria especially in the Correctional Service System. Even though the aim of imprisonment has been to serve as a retribution for offences committed and to serve as a deterrent to others as well as reformation of the offender, investigations have revealed that the prisons are at the fore-front of abusing the basic human rights of its occupants (i.e., the prisoners). Human rights are the basic guarantees for human beings to be able to attain their freedom and some of these rights do not cease simply because the individual is in prison. The situation in the Correctional Service Centres has shown that the human rights situation in Nigeria is not ideal even though concerted attempts have been made to redress this, but this issue still persists. Overcrowding in the prisons of which the major reason is the high number of inmates in pre-trial detention has made tackling this human rights abuses more cumbersome. This article discusses the rights available to the prisoners and how some of these rights have not been made accessible to the prisoners, the government machineries that have unwittingly aided in the violation of these rights and how these abuses can be checkmated.