Criminologists, others converge on Abuja to discuss reformation of Nigeria’s Correctional Service

Against the background of challenges confronting the Nigeria Correctional Service, scholars in the field of criminology and criminal justice system would converge on University of Abuja to examine the Correctional Service Reformation in the country.

The conference which will take place at the University of Abuja from June 26 to 27, aims to present evidence emanating from the researches conducted by members of the Nigerian Society for Criminology (NSC) towards promoting justice, achieving rehabilitation of inmates and ensuring social reintegration of discharged inmates.

A release signed by the President, Nigeria Society for Criminology (NSC), Prof. Oludayo Tade, stated that the conference will feature presentations from over 100 researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of criminology and security studies.

The 2025 conference is themed, “Correctional service reformation in Nigeria: Promoting justice, rehabilitation and social reintegration.”

According to him, the conference objectives are to “assess the current state of the Nigeria’s correctional system and the need for reforms; explore strategies for effective reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-inmates; interrogate the role of law, policy and human rights in the penal reform; analyse probation, parole, alternative to dispute resolutions including restorative justice; assess impact and implication of the 2019 Nigeria Correctional Services Act; and discuss the challenges facing correctional services in Nigeria and make policy recommendations for mitigating them.”

He disclosed that the keynote speaker is the Controller General of  Correctional Service, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche who will speak on “2019 Correctional Service Act : Challenges  and prospects for effective implementation”, while the lead paper presenter is Prof. Christopher Uchechukwu Uguokwe, of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nnsuka (UNN),  who will speak on, “Human Resources Management in Penal and correctional facilities.”

The NSC President stated that the correctional service is very important in ensuring the reformation and rehabilitation of the inmates, adding that there may be the need to check issues of staff compromise within that sensitive institution.

“We need to focus on welfare issues and life within the prison walls. Apart from the problem of overcrowding, and welfare of inmates and staff in our correctional system, we need to have conversations to develop mechanisms that will check prison breaks, preferential treatments of inmates, intelligence compromise from the correctional service personnel and corruption within the system”.

He maintained that something must be done to address the growing numbers of those awaiting trial, adding that out of 81,288 total inmates population, 53, 811 are those on awaiting trial list.