CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND INMATES REHABILITATION IN BENIN PRISONS

The study examined the effect of rehabilitation programmes on prison inmates. The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of correction institutions in the rehabilitation of female inmates in Benin City. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 60 female inmates in both Oko Prison and Benin Prison. It was discovered that the rehabilitation programmes were not very successful due to lack of fund, inadequacy of rehabilitation equipment, lack of trained personnel, lack of manpower and poor management of rehabilitation programmes among others. The findings show that prisons have not successfully achieved their objective according to the Nigerian Prison Act of (2001) which is to reform and rehabilitate offenders to be good and useful citizens. Therefore, rehabilitation programmes in the prisons are not as effective as expected. Based on the findings of the research, it was recommended that the prison authority should provide earning schemes to female inmates to enhance their
effective reintegration and rehabilitation into the society; rehabilitation programmes should not be left in the hands of prison officials alone. Social workers, NGOs and others should be fully involved in rehabilitation of inmates, government should consider a form of compulsory savings scheme for convicts involved in prison work. A matching grant or a percentage of the amount saved should be given to a prisoner when due for release. This will assist in resettlement of the ex-convicts with the skills acquired while in prison amongst other things.