Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari has given assent to the bill changing the name ‘Nigerian Prisons Service’ to ‘Nigerian Correctional Service’.
This was announced on Wednesday, August 14, 2019, by Mr Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters.
With this law, the Nigerian Prisons Service will now be known as the Nigerian Correctional Service.
According to Enang, the correctional service has two main faculties: custodial service and non-custodial service.
He said: “The non-custodial faculty of the correctional service is responsible for the administration of non-custodial measures, namely: community Service, probation, parole, restorative justice measures and such other measures as a court of competent jurisdiction may order. Restorative Justice measure approved in the Act include victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing, community mediation and other conciliatory measures as may be deemed necessary pre-trial, trial during imprisonment or even post- imprisonment stages.”