My
name is Delphine Ebikere Atabong, a 500 level clinician from the University of
Abuja Law Clinic and my reflection will be focused on our prison visit to Kuje
prison.
My
general thought and belief about the judicial system was that, prison is meant
to serve as a form of rehabilitation to prisoners rather than punishment, but
that was not the case in Kuje prison.
Compared
to other prisons, Kuje looks very conducive due to the infrastructure, hygiene
and activities of the prison. However on getting there I expected that the prison
officials would be willing and happy to receive us to work with them but to my
greatest dismay, they were in fact reluctant to receive us. On getting there,
the officials were not expecting us, although we informed them weeks before we
actually went for the visit. A letter informing them of our visit was sent to
them weeks before we went because we wanted to prepare for the visit and they
were also supposed arrange the case files that we were meant to go through
because there was a specification on the type of case we are going to handle.
We were asked to wait for almost an hour outside the prison because of this
issue. They were also complaining that the amount of students that came for the
interviews and they almost sent us back and sincerely that was a little
discouraging. However our coordinator had to talk with them and the issue was
resolved after the wait.
After
the first issue was resolved, we got to enter the prison and wait for the
prisoners to arrive and we noticed how badly the prisoners were being treated
to the extent that some of them had to come bare footed, and also we got to
know that some of these prisoners don’t even know exactly why they were
arrested, some of them have been imprisoned for a long time due to a minor
offence that they committed, some have been offered bailed but the prison
officials still held them in the prison and more importantly some of these
prisoners don’t even have a case file to start with. That was when I realized
that everything is wrong with our legal system; I mean the only fundamental
right the constitution permits is to restrict the freedom to movement and not
anything else.
This
experience made me conscious with what have been happening in our judicial
system and it also motivated me to become better and more serious with the task
at hand because I just felt like we are the last hope for some of this
prisoners because if we don’t offer our help to them in the little way we can,
no one would and they would continue to suffer and live an undeserving life, away
from their families and friends and no hope to look forward to.
After
all of this I realized the major problem is the attitude of the prison
officials and other security agencies, because their job is to ensure the
proper admission and reintegration of the prisoners. And also the officials
need to have an empathic attitude in carry on their duties, which is why I
cannot fail to appreciate the law clinic for giving me such opportunity to
build the right attitude.
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