The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has identified congestion as a major factor responsible for jailbreaks in the country.
Mr Chuks Njoku, the Service Public Relations Officer, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Njoku said that congestion had done more harm to the NCoS but assured that measures were being taken to address it.
“On the 12th of March, the Minister of Interior will perform the groundbreaking ceremony of 3,000 capacity building of a custodial centre at Karshi in the FCT.
“This building will to a large extent contain the incidences of jailbreak. This facility is for the North Central Zone.
“What causes jailbreak is lack of space, inmates are congested. There is no space for vocational training and other things they can benefit from.
“This makes inmates begin to form subculture and clique but when you occupy them with vocational training, this reduces incidences of jailbreak,’’ he said.
Njoku noted that congestion in the centres was caused by people who were not supposed to be in the custodian centres and had no business being there.
According to him, some custodial centres are built to contain 300 inmates but ended up with 3,000 inmates, resulting in overcrowding. (NAN)
