Benue State University, Makurdi

Synoptic Appraisal of the Nigerian Correctional Service ACT, 2019

Vearumun Vitalis Tarhule *

Abstract

The Nigerian government recently promulgated the Correctional Service Act, 2019 (Act) which repealed the hitherto existing Prisons Act, 2004. The repealed law had become outdated and no longer capable of driving forward the criminal justice sector hence the need to repeal it. Spurred by the desire to interrogate the nomenclatural change, this article, adopting the doctrinal methodology of research comparatively perused the Act to see what new it has introduced to the Nigerian criminal justice system. It found that the Act has divided the sector into two, Custodial and Non-Custodial Services; that it has for the first time in Nigerian history crisply provided objectives for the Correctional service; that has ample provision for the implementation of new sentencing paradigms introduced by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 (ACJA). The article noted certain jurisprudential conflicts between the Act and the Constitution on one hand, and the Act and the ACJA on the other. The article recommended that the conflict between the Act and the ACJA be resolved in favour of the Act; and that Nigeria should abolish death sentence instead of directing Chief Judges to commute sentences of death to life imprisonment.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE (CLICK)