Bwari (FCT)- The Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errant, an NGO, on Friday urged the Federal Government to establish libraries in all prison formations nationwide as part of efforts to ensure proper rehabilitation of inmates.
Its Executive Director, Mr Sylvester Ohaa, gave the advice in Bwari, FCT, while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said prison rehabilitation in the country had become overwhelmed because of the population of inmates who ended up coming out of the prison worse off than when they were imprisoned.
“Elsewhere, people go into the prison and come out as Authors; they write books in prisons, they get academic degrees in prison, we want that to happen in Nigeria.
“People in prison are Nigerians; they are youths and they go in and come out, someone needs to be responsible for them, because we are not just talking about their own good.
“Getting education is for the good of the society; if they get education, come out and get jobs, the society will become better.
“That is something that the government really needs to look at to empower people who are in prison.“
He unfolded plans by the organisation to come up with a programme entitled “books behind bars” to promote reading culture among prison inmates across the country.
According to him, we will establish full teaching programmes in prisons with established libraries, to encourage both adult inmates and Juveniles to read for leisure and also to prepare for exams.
“Some prisons now have the National Open University programmes, such as the Lagos, Kuje and Enugu prisons respectively.
“That is why there is the need for prison inmates who run University to have access to books, to learn effectively during the cause of the programme.
“There are also large numbers of inmates that register for public examination, such as the WAEC and JAMB exams; how can they pass if they don’t have books?“
He, however, promised to partner with government and other related civil society organisations, to achieve the desired goal. (NAN)
