THE PRISON SERVICE IN COLONIAL WESTERN NIGERIA, 1872-1960

Abstract

The establishment of prisons in colonial Western Nigeria was a social measure to curb criminality. Scholarly works exist on the prisons system in postcolonial Nigeria, but less on the colonial period. This study was, therefore, designed to examine the prisons service in colonial Western Nigeria, with a view to historicising and analysing their operations between 1872, when the first colonial prison was established and 1960, when Nigeria gained independence from the British. The historical approach was adopted, while the interpretive design was used. Primary and secondary sources were utilised. The primary sources included archival materials and oral interviews. Archival records were collected from the Nigeria National Archives, Ibadan; and the National Archives, Kew Gardens, London. Annual Reports, Chief Secretary Office papers, Provincial and Divisional Colonial papers, Government Gazettes, Intelligence Reports, Assessment Reports and newspapers were utilised. Interviews were conducted with 40 persons, aged between 50 and 98, who were purposively selected for their knowledge of the workings of the prison service of colonial Western Nigeria in Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Akure, Benin, Uromi and Ilesa. These were five academics, 10 local historians, 10 community leaders, 10 retired prison officers, three retired police officers and two retired civil servants. Secondary sources included journals, books, memoirs, theses and dissertations. Data were subjected to historical analysis. The prisons service was one of the fundamental units of the colonial justice system used by the British colonial administration to consolidate her stronghold on Nigeria. The colonial prison system demonstrated that there was a strong connection among the various sectors of the colonial administration. Between 1872 and 1920, the colonial administrators succeeded in creating two types of prison service, the Government and Native Authority Prisons, with headquarters in Lagos. The system, however, was punitive rather than reformative. There were no special reformative programmes, such as counselling and vocational training in Ikoyi, Ibadan and Abeokuta prisons, which had high number of inmates. There was a vast level of segregation and racism within the prison service, especially in the Lagos and Abeokuta prisons. Despite the several penal regulations that were established between 1920 and 1954, the prison service still gave preferential treatments to European inmates. They were allocated special uniform, meals and accommodation. However, the service contravened the universal prison system as the elderly, women and young offenders, in spite of their obvious needs, were never given any special treatment. From 1954 to 1960, there was a gradual shift of the penal administrative leadership from the British colonialists to Nigerians. Throughout the colonial period, there was no exclusive female prison built to accommodate the female inmates; rather, they were accommodated on make-shift arrangement within the confines of the larger prison. The colonial historical antecedents of the prison service in Western Nigeria created a racial structure within the prison system in the country, which is now known as the Nigerian Correctional Service. However, the administrative pattern and procedure of prison service did not reflect the reformative purpose for which the institution were established.