The Nigerian prisons were first established as native authority outfits, these were at old Calabar, Onitsha, Benin, Sapele in addition to the one in Lagos. However, the Native Authority prison system has now assumed the status of an octopus federal organization with a unitary command system, radiating the same structure, implementing the same policies and aspiration all over the country (Adelola and Atere (2002).
Prison is an institution where inmates are confined to serve sentences in excess of one year. A prison normally has three distinct custody levels for inmates, based on an assessment of their perceived dangerousness. The categories are maximum danger, medium danger and minimum danger. The maximum security prisons are designed to hold the most violent dungeons and aggressive inmates. They are built with high concrete walls or double-perimeter wile fences, gun towers with armed officers and strategically placed electronic monitors. Every state in Nigeria has one or several maximum security prisons.
The medium security prisons are built for inmates who are considered less dangerous or escape prone than those in maximum security facilities. These structures typically have no high outside wall, only a series of fences. Many medium security inmates are housed in large dormitories rather than cells. The minimum security prisons hold inmates considered the lowest security risks. These institutions often operate without armed Officers and without partner walls or fences. The typical inmates in this institution has proved trustworthy in the correctional setting is non-violent and is serving a short prison sentence.
Prisons are Federal or State penal institutions where criminals serve sentences, both State and Federal prisons have been positioned with better management than jails and often with better education, recreations and employment training programs prisons are larger, have many more inmates and this have much bigger budgets. In the words of Onike (2010) prisons are established confinements for the safe keeping of those legally interned or awaiting trials. People who have been charged or convicted of one criminal offence or more are expected to get re-oriented and become better, in order to live in the society when they leave the prison. For prisons to achieve the objectives of reformation and rehabilitation there is the need for the training and re-training of the inmates.
Nigeria prisons are managed by the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), a parastatal under the Ministry of Interior, headed by a Controller General of Prisons Alhaji Ja’afaru Ahamed, who presides over the administration of all prison facilities. The NPS is also an important arm of the Criminal justice system solely charged with the responsibility of taking into custody all those who have been interred to correct them for eventual release and to help integrate them back into the society Ibrahim (2012).
Subscribe to access this work and thousands more