An advocacy group, Human Rights Law Services, has called on the Lagos State Judiciary to make better use of non-custodial punishments for minor offences as part of measures to address the worsening problem of prison congestion in the state.

The group noted that though non-custodial punishment options were provided for in the Lagos State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, which had been in existence for over 10 years, the court had yet to fully explore those options.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday, the Senior Legal Officer, HURILAWS, Mr Collins Okeke, lamented that the ACJL, which was first passed in 2007 and amended subsequently twice in 2011 and 2015, had yet to fulfill the dream of prison decongestion, which was one of its cardinal aims.

Okeke called for an urgent reform of the non-custodian provision of the ACJL 2015 in a way that would lead to a better use of fines, community service and probation as alternative punishments to sending offenders to the prison.

He advocated that as opposed to the current practice where the courts only use community service for juvenile offenders, the option should be extended to adult offenders too.

He also called for a review of the fines stipulated by the law to make them realistic and commensurate with the offences.

“The Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003,which prohibits street trading and illegal markets, prescribes the following fines: N90,000 or six months’ imprisonment for a first offender; N135,000 and nine months’ imprisonment for a second offender; and N180,000 and one year’s imprisonment for a third offender.

“These fines are excessive and fail to take into consideration the nature and condition of offenders who are mostly poor.  Although the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law prescribe other non-custodial measures like seizure and forfeiture, in practice, the Lagos State sentencing policy appears to favour fines. The result is that most offenders cannot pay the fines and will end up in prison, further congesting the prisons,” Okeke said.

He urged the Lagos State House of Assembly to complement the sentencing guidelines and restorative justice introduced by the Chief Judge of the state by “extending probation and community service in the ACJL to adult offenders and by making the fines prescribed in Lagos laws commensurate with the offences and the offenders.”

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