As part of its effort towards eliminating recidivism in the country, an Abuja based non-governmental organisation, Legend Golden Care Foundation (LGCF) has donated study equipment, including computers to inmates of the Suleja Custodial Center in Niger State, to enhance their access to functional education and skill acquisition while in custody.
Executive Director of the Foundation, Kanayo Olisa-Metuh, who presented the educational equipment to the Custodial Center on Wednesday, said the gesture was to assist the inmates to acquire necessary qualifications and skills needed for gainful means of livelihood after their terms in the center.
She emphasised that a critical aspect of the Criminal Justice System that must be brought to the fore was the re-entry process, through which persons in correctional confinement are prepared for return to the community as reformed and useful members of the society.
“We are here today to support what the Government is already doing in helping inmates of the Suleja Correctional Facility that are so inclined to achieve their dreams of acquiring some form of formal education.
“One of the aspects of the Criminal Justice System that needs to be set in the front burner is the Re-entry process; the process by which a person in correctional confinement is prepared to return to the society.
“A major part of the re-entry process should be ensuring that the inmates are equipped with means of livelihood. While for some, it will be skills acquisition, for others it will entail formal education,” she said.
The Executive Director further expounded that while formal education not only prepares the inmates for the job market, it also serves as some form of rehabilitation.
Stressing that getting education helps the inmates engage their minds positively, equip them with means of livelihood and reduces the rate of recidivism.
She lamented that inmates who are not able to receive such rehabilitation while in custody are most likely to return to crime.
Items presented by the Foundation included brand new desktop computers, laptops, television sets, generator set, printer and photocopier, internet facilities, data subscription and WAEC fees for student inmates, among other things.
The LGCF Executive Director charged the inmates to make ultimate use of the equipment, while urging the Center to ensure that they are properly maintained.
Receiving the equipment, the Deputy Controller of Corrections, DCC Omeke Emmanuel, who represented the Controller of Corrections, thanked the Foundation for its gesture towards the inmates.
DCC Omeke stated that students of the e-Learning Center had to be taken to Kuje Correctional Center to take their examinations but that with Legend Golden Care Foundation’s intervention, the examinations will now be conducted in Suleja Correctional Centre. He assured the foundation that the items donated will be properly maintained.
Others on ground to receive the Foundation included the Acting Officer in charge of Suleja Custodial Centre, CSC Theresa Laha, SC Yakubu Bature, and other officers of the Service.
Legend Golden Care Foundation is a self-funded, self-propelled charity and human rights Non-Governmental Organization which focuses on the material needs of the vulnerable, poverty alleviation, education support, community development, rights advocacy and pro-bono legal services to the underprivileged including inmates in Nigerian Correctional Centers.
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