By
Maicibi, N. Alhas (Ph D)
Research and Policy Development
Advisor (UNAFRI)
Introduction
 Current craze for change of the name of the service
from Prison to Prison Service then to Correctional
 The negative connotation and disdain of ‘prison’.
 The meaning- ‘as a place for those physically confined
and deprived of their rights’.
 Perceptions: individuals and the public
Introduction, cont’d
 Yesterday Vs Today – African Corrections
 Yesterday, offenders were managed without incarceration
 Prisons-like places were mainly for holding purposes
 They were for enhancing social harmony
 It was compensation/ conciliation rather than punishment
 Focus was on both offender and victims
 Holding ‘imprisonment’ was the alternative to non
custodial
 **Today, focus is mainly on the offender
 The non custodial are the alternatives**
Africans Vs Europeans
 Why the practice of incarceration for the 2 groups?
 For colonised/Africans, it was a holding facility for
compensation; while wrongdoing was rectified to get
restitution rather than punishment
 For colonialists/Europeans, it was to control and
subdue potential rebellious natives; not for
rehabilitation but for economic, political, religious and
social subjugation, and means to justify cheap labour.
Phases of Correctional
 Decarceration: no prisons, correcting within
community
 Incarceration: Prisons were a holding, restraining
facility-knife Logic
 Prisons became a punishment facility-Knife Logic
 Prisons are now perceived as correctional facilityNeedle Logic
*** All to make communities safer***
Elements of Major Styles of Social Control (A.V:1990:20)
System of Justice
Penal
Compensatory
Conciliatory
Therapeutic
1
Harm
Value
Material
Relational
Personality
2
Liability
Individual
Group
Shared
None
3
Goal
retribution
settlement
Reconciliation
Normality
4
Solution
Punishment
Payment
Negotiation
Treatment
Vision and Mission of Corrections
 * Vision
 A correctional service for achieving a crime free Society
 A Correctional Service of excellence in Africa & beyond
 As the best provider of custodial and correctional practices
 As the strongest agent of community protection
 As the enabler of humane and secure society thru crime
prevention
 **As the nucleus of professional corrections in Africa and a
front runner in the world. **
Mission
 To promote human rights of prisons, and the public
through provision of safe and humane custody
 To contain offenders in human and safe conditions in
order to facilitate responsible administration of justice
 To promote criminal justice institutions’ reforms for a
secure society
Mission, cont’d
 To enable community safety and security through
mitigation of the role of offenders
 To effectively and efficiently provide and maintain a
humane custodial and correctional services to
inmates.
 **To pave way for best correctional practice in Africa
and beyond.**
Orientations of the Service’s
Management
 Current orientation
The Reactive Orientation
Most international instruments only address the two below:
 Concentration on the inmates:
Numbers, Rights, Feeding, Welfare
 Concentration on the infrastructure
 Facilities, building, amenities
 Early releases: Parole, probation , pardon, etc
####This is reactive#####
Expected Orientation: The
Proactive as a multi-actor
orientation
 Concentration on the staff also
 Welfare
 Motivation
 Participation
 Image boosting
 Attitudinal change-staff, inmates, public
Correcting outside the facility
 Extension of the concept of Community Corrections to
include Community mobilization as a multi-actor
orientation approach: Judiciary, Parliament, Executive
-Concentration on how to reduce prison congestion
through preemptive prevention
-Using the Not There Alternatives (NTA)
Correcting outside, cont’d
 ** Some NTAs: **
 Encouraging diversionary measures
 Encouraging the African ‘restorative justice’ system
 Encouraging out of court settlement
 Encouraging community service
 Be more open to public
Sensitization of Magistrates and
communities on
Community service sentencing
option;
fines, acquittals, bails, parole and
probation
Creation of mini courts in
prisons
Allow inmates engage in political
and civic activities
Crime Prevention: A Proactivity
 Working closely with agencies of crime prevention e.g
UNAFRI, UNODC etc
 Working hard in the community to prevent reoffending/recidivism
 Constructive engagement of the parliament for review
of laws
 * Borrow Maicibi’s generic formula for fighting crime**
Correctional Refinery
Crime Prevention Steam
NTA
Diversions
ADR
RJS
Out of court
settlement
Community Service
Acquittals
Fines
Courts (Judiciary)
Bails
Parole and probation
Prisons
Maicibi generic formula for fighting Crime
B<C
Where:
B => Benefits
Mb - Monetary & economic benefits to the criminal
Pb – Psychological & physiological benefits to the criminal
Sb- Sociological benefits to the criminal
Ec- Ease & level of success in committing the crime
C => Costs
Mt –Monetary & time to commit the crime
Fa – Fear & probability of being apprehended & arrested
Pc – Probability of conviction & its harshness
Lo – Lost opportunities & stigmatization
Key: B Vs C
B > C : Mb+Pb+Sb+ Ec > Mt+Fa+Pc+Lo means that benefits outweigh the costs.
B<C : Mb+Pb+Sb+Ec < Mt+Fa+Pc+Lo means that costs outweigh the benefits
B>C has a slim chance of deterring crave to commit crime
B<C has a high chance of deterring crave to commit crime
**Target and strategy should be to increase the Cs and decrease the Bs.
Prisons Facility Tree
Inability for proper
containment
Corruption
Diseases
Army of remand
inmates
Jail violence/riots
Inadequate
programming
Poor service delivery
Overcrowding
Court decisional
delays
Recognition
and Funding
Corruption
The burden of prove
Neglect of restorative justice
Closed prisons’
system
Poor access to legal Aid
Poverty
NTA
CONCLUSION
Thank you for being a
wonderful audience
Maicibi Alhas (Ph D.)
UNAFRI