1.1 Introduction
Prison break is an unlawful act under Nigerian law, of a prisoner forcing their way out of a prison. It can also be described as attacks on the Nigerian Prisons Services by terrorists such as Boko Haram and armed robbers in which many prisoners are released (Smith, 2010). Often, when this occurs, efforts are made by the Nigerian Prisons Services in conjunction with security agency to nearest the escapee and return them to the prison and this may result in the extension of their jail term (Wikipedia, 2021). Prison break in Nigeria may be attributed to corruption, poor funding of the prison services, poor prison facilities, inadequate security features such as CCTV, motion sensors, high wall made up of barbed wire and sometimes electric fencing of the wall (Beam, 2011).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Prisons in Nigeria are a major institution. Inmates locked within the prison walls are segregated from the outside world, kept under constant scrutiny and surveillance, and forced to obey a strict code of oicial rules to avoid facing formal sanctions and consequences. Their personal possessions are taken from them and they must conform to institutional dress and personal appearance norms. Many human functions are thoroughly curtailed — heterosexual activity, friendship, family relationships, society, education, and participation in groups become seriously restricted or to a higher level entirely cut-o [Senna and Siegel, 1981].
It is an institution designed to warehouse people who have been convicted or suspected of crimes. These individuals, known as prisoners or inmates, are kept in continuous custody on a short or long-term basis. Individuals who commit the most serious crimes are sent to prison for one or more years; the more serious the oense, the longer the prison term imposed. For certain crimes, such as murder, oenders may be sentenced to life imprisonment. The major objective of the Nigerian Prisons Service is essentially to hold in custody all those legally interned and accused (Awaiting Trial Persons) while ensuring that all prisoners have access to speedy and fair justice.
The Nigerian Prisons Service is also charged with the core responsibility of promoting public protection by providing assistance for oenders in their reformation and rehabilitation under safe, secure and humane conditions, in accordance with universally accepted standards and to facilitate their social reintegration into the society. The Nigerian Prisons Service is supposed to guide and assist the authorities in achieving peaceful and non-riotous situations in the prisons. However, frequent prison breaks in Nigerian prisons have continued to occur. Hence, this trend poses a great research interest, since it is a security threat, not only to the prison authority, but to national security in general. It is then an interesting exercise in trying by way of academic research to unravel the reasons as to why there are incessant prison breaks in Nigeria in recent times.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect and Causes of Prison Break in Nigeria.
1.3 Statement of Problem
The poor infrastructure and lack of adequate care of prison inmates in Nigerian prisons have led to the frequent cases of prison breaks in Nigeria which have posed a lot of security challenges to the country. This has regrettably led to the increase of crime and other vices. The Nigerian prison service have overtime been put the blame but the blame shouldn't be laid to their feet alone as the Nigerian government should have part of the blame as well. Prison or prison breaks does not augur well for any society let alone Nigeria.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The main aim of the study is to examine the effect and causes of prison break in Nigeria. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine the causes of prison breaks in Nigerian prisons.
- To examine the impact prison breaks in Nigerian prisons.
- To suggest ways prison break can be managed in Nigerian prisons.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the causes of prison breaks in Nigerian prisons?
- What is the impact prison breaks in Nigerian prisons?
- How can prison break be managed in Nigerian prisons?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
- H0: Prison breaks have no significant effect on the security of Nigeria.
- H1: Prison breaks have significant effect on the security of Nigeria.
1.7 Significance of Study
The study would greatly benefit the Nigerian prison service and by extension the governments at all levels as it would reveal the effect of jail break on the security of Nigeria while highlighting the ways of curbing such. The study would also be of immense benefit to students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing further studies on the subject matter.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope Of The Study
The study is restricted to the effect and causes of prison breaks in Nigeria using the kuje prisons Abuja as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
