Stakeholders’ in Ekiti, Osun and Ondo States have expressed concerns about the operations of Remand Homes which they said revolve around overcrowding, inadequate infrastructure, lack of qualified staff, insufficient resources for rehabilitation, and inadequate provision of educational and recreational activities for the children in the facilities.

The stakeholders, in separate interviews urged the government to improve on the facilities and conditions in remand homes with provision of better living standards, access to education and healthcare, as well as psychosocial support for the children in the facilities.

In Osun, the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development disclosed that remand homes in state were being used in reforming and equipping children with relevant skills for self-reliance. Mr Gboyega Babs, the welfare officer, Juvenile Remand Home, Osogbo, said that the facility was still operational with the expected facilities to take care of the remanded children.

Babs said offenders below the age of 18 years are remanded at the Juvenile home with adequate care to ensure they become better persons after their release from the centre. He disclosed that the centre equally follows up on most of the children after their release to ensure their well-being and help them become better persons.

According to him, the home prioritises rehabilitation and reintegration over punishment for young individuals who may be beyond parental control or have committed a crime. “The government makes sure that the expected facilities are provided for these children throughout their stay. We monitor them and also ensure they are rehabilitated and reformed before being released to the society,” he said, adding that the children in the facility were being trained on skills to enhance their social integration after their release from the centre.

Similarly, the Head of Department, Children and Social Affairs, state Ministry of Women Affairs, Mr Olusegun Akande, explained that the children were kept at the Home for not more than 21 days. “Within the period of their stay, they are pre-occupied with menial tasks and recreational sports. Ideally, the children are to be kept for a maximum period of 21 days, pending the outcome of their cases in court. Unfortunately, some are there for up to one to two years because when the Police drop them at the centre, they don’t come for them again. What we do for them at the centre is keep them busy and also invite Pastors and Imams to teach them the words of God and guide them so they change their ways.

He added: “For their education, ideally, there should be a government-approved school within the Correctional Centre, but because there is none in Osun, we take them to the nearest school to the centre”. He said most of the children at the facilities were usually released back to their parents whenever they were remorseful, noting that the few hardened ones were sent to the Buster Home, a Federal Government Juvenile Correctional Centre in Adigbe, Abeokuta, Ogun, where all facilities to care for them were available.

“At the centre in Ogun, they write Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and also learn any skill or trade of their choice. So far, the State Correctional Centre for Juveniles is in good shape and the children’s feeding and welfare are well taken care of,” he said.

Speaking, a Professor of Criminology and Media Studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, James Ayodele, called on the State and Federal Governments to ensure adequate monitoring and aftercare services for children released from remand homes. “One of the relevance of this remand homes is that they help decongest correctional facilities meant for adult offenders. Adequate funding and qualified personnel should also be provided by government for remand homes,” he said.

In Ekiti, a social welfare officer, Miss Moyinoluwa Ogundowole, says the Ado-Ekiti Remand Home is up to standards but inadequate funding is affecting its operations which has negative impacts on the lives of the juveniles

Ogundowole, who runs a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Ekiti, urged government officials to visit the centre regularly, to know the problems and provide enough infrastructural facilities for the staff to properly take care of the children. She suggested formal education programmes to encourage the children, saying this would make them feel they were loved by government and society “because they are offenders, and not criminals.”

Another social welfare officer in Ekiti, Mrs Rita Ilevbare, who is the founder of Gender Relevant Initiatives Promotion (GRIP), said the conceptualisation of Ado-Ekiti Remand Home was to change the children for better and equip them with positive values for the future.

A psychologist at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Dr Dada Badmus, expressed concern over the conditions of children at remand homes due to alleged lack of adequate care for growth.

He said some of the facilities are experiencing over-crowding and poor bedding conditions, which often resulted in sleep depravation, have psychological effects on the children.

Similarly, a legal practitioner, Sunday Adeyemi, urged the state governments to improve, and upgrade juvenile homes by training and educating the children with the help of psychologists and medical practitioners.

Adeyemi advised the state government to employ qualified teachers, psychologists and security officers to keep the remand home in Ekiti safe, and provide the children with education or vocational training to equip them with skills as opportunities for future employment.

He also recommended that the management of juvenile home should always follow-up on the children released from the facility to be sure that their behaviours were in conformity with the society and education received from the centre.

In Ondo State, a Sociologist, Mr Sunday Bamidele, said some of the positive effects of the remand home on children include having the attitudinal remodelling mechanisms that could cause adversity towards any criminal act. “This happens as they gradually grow up in life and mostly when they are eventually extricated. This may also take the shape of skill acquisition method which can have more productive purpose to the society than to be more criminal minded;

“It gives them the advantage of educational advancement, mostly in the advanced nations of the world where they are exposed to better educational facilities meant for complete overhauling of the intention of misdemeanour in them. It is also an avenue to keep them away from the society, hence, preventing the criminal output others may copy,” he said further.

Bamidele also listed negative influences of remand homes to include negative mental health and emotional disturbances that may take much longer time to correct in the children due to the lack of parental communication.

According to the sociologist, there is the tendency of coming across other children who are more criminal minded and may induce them into crimes to which they are not previously conversant with.

“Mostly in this regard, they are influenced into drugs and other narcotic materials. In some instances, the environment they are being kept may not be congenial as it will take a differential environment from their homes.

“Some of them with issues of ill health may not have access to the drugs meant for corrective or curative purposes of their health system. Remand homes may also expose them to the avenue of gangsterism where they encounter gangsters engaging in conflicts and physical combat.

“This can be a conduit of becoming more rugged to rehabilitation, both in and outside the remand homes,” he concluded .

(NAN

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