The Ondo State Chief Judge, Justice William Akintoroye, said the state government has been working on ways to prevent prolonged detention of suspects in a bid to decongest the correctional centres across the state.

The CJ, who expressed worry over the congestion of prisons and police custody in the state, described the development as worrisome and said there was a need to nip the matter in the bud.

Justice Akinrotoye stated this on Wednesday at the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee State Workshop, in Akure, the state capital.

According to the CJ, the suspects, staying too long in detention at the correctional centres might become hardened criminals, when they got out, hence the need to prevent prolonged detention.

He said, ” Congestion of the correctional centres is giving me a sleepless night, we are trying to see what we can do to decongest these correctional centres and police stations, and not only to decongest, we are also trying to see what we can do to prevent some innocent people from getting there at all. It is better to nip some issues in the bud than allow them to snowball and start to run helter-skelter for a solution.

“Somebody who is innocent maybe he or she was arrested because of misfortune and you allow him or her to stay in the correctional centre for a long time. by the time he comes out, he or she would have become a hardened criminal. It is better we don’t allow such persons to get there at all. So we are working assiduously to ensure that we prevent so many souls from prison contamination, we don’t allow them to get there in the first place ”

On the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee, the judge noted that the committee shall be charged with the general supervision of the administration of criminal justice in Ondo State.

He listed the functions of the committee to include ensuring that criminal matters are speedily dealt with, that congestion of criminal cases in courts is drastically reduced, congestion in prisons is reduced to the barest minimum and persons awaiting trial are as much as possible not detained in prison custody.

The Executive Secretary of the ACJMC in the state, Mrs Bola Joe, in her remarks, recalled that the ACJ Law came into force in 2015 while the committee was inaugurated in 2019.

She however lamented that the committee was facing some challenges which included inadequate funding from the government, lack of tools to work in their secretariat and lack of staff in the secretariat.

“It is believed that the challenges will soon be surmounted and the committee will be up and doing in realizing its mandate as provided in section 426 of the ACJ Law of Ondo State 2015,” Joel said.