THE Impact OF Prison Reforms on THE Welfare OF THE Inmates: A Case Study OF Afokang Prison Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The living conditions in Nigeria's prisons are very terrible and incapable of guaranteeing expected reformation of inmates. The reason being that there is general paucity in infrastructures, policies, workshops and corrupt disposed system. Given this background the main thrust of this study was to examine the impact of prison reforms on the welfare of the inmates. To achieve the purpose of this study two research questions were raised, which preceded the hypotheses. The design was empirical inquiry (expost facto). The population of the study consisted of all staff and inmates in the study area. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw a sample size of two hundred. Pearson product moment correlation co-efficient served as the statistical instrument. The result of the analysis shows that: poor remuneration and absence of reformatory facilities militate against reforms workability. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made which include amongst others, the need for a body established by law and charged with the responsibility of visiting prisons with a view to identifying and proffering solutions to the immediate problems of the system, and inmates should be realistically introduced to useful trade that are geared toward occupational reality of the world outside prison.