Justice Minister Pushes For Non-custodial Sentencing

Attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) has said legal and regulatory framework must be effectively implemented to facilitate the application of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and the effective use of the non-custodial sentencing.

The AGF, who addressed a two-day workshop on the implementation of the non-custodial measures and sentencing guidelines under ACJA, 2015 for judges, police prosecutors, Federal Ministry of Justice prosecutors and correctional officers from the North Central states and the Federal Capital Territory held yesterday in Abuja, said the purpose of non-custodial measures is to find effective alternatives to imprisonment for offenders. This is in accordance with the current global shift in punishing convicts with alternatives to prison terms.

He said the aim of the trend is to give the judges and magistrates much latitude and discretion to award befitting and purposeful punishment to convicts aside the punishment suggested by the statute creating the offence.

Fagbemi, who was represented by the director, Administration of Criminal Justice Reform Department of the ministry of justice, Mrs. Leticia Ayoola-Daniels, described sentencing as a core judicial function in criminal justice.

“In discharging that function, the sentencing judge must strive to achieve the right balance between imposing a merited sentence in the case at hand, while maintaining a broad level of consistency with other cases so that sentencing at a systematic level is fair,” he said.

According to the AGF, ACJA, which was enacted and came into force on May 13, 2015, placed premium on non-custodial sentences, adding that the government has set out guidelines to stipulate the requirements and procedure for imposing non-custodial sentencing for the purpose of preventing abuse and ensuring reasonable uniformity and fairness in the imposition of sentences.

The minister said since the coming effect of the Practice Direction in 2020, the sentencing landscape has continued to develop rapidly and extensively and that the courts had handed down many more sentencing frameworks to guide the exercise of sentencing discretion in a broadly consistent way.

Fagbemi expressed the belief that the workshop would provide a timely opportunity to reflect on recent developments and look at what might lie ahead in the context of sentencing in the courts.

“Today, we have seen countless cases where defendants are arrested for minor offences and locked up in prisons, adding to the population of awaiting trial inmates.

“These offenders remanded with hardened criminals end up being initiated into a life of crime instead of being reformed,” he said and added that the essence of the workshop is to share knowledge on the effective use of the instruments that will lead to a decrease in arbitrary punishments, uniformity in punishments, and utilisation of alternatives to imprisonment to decrease the population of awaiting trial inmates.

“The use of non-custodial measure has facilitated reduction in our correctional facility to the barest minimum in line with section 470(2)(c) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 and section 2(1)(b) of the Nigerian Correctional Services Act, 2019.

“The guidelines provide appropriate standards and measures for the sentencing process in offence against the State, Person, Public order for the purpose of uniformity and fairness in sentencing which will further strengthen the criminal procedure system,” he said.

Fagbemi said the success of any system of criminal justice administration depends on the level of effective implementation of the guidelines by the agencies involved and urged all the participants in the workshop to remain undoubtedly indispensable stakeholders, playing crucial roles in enhancing law and order through the performance of a constellation of functions such as prevention of crime, detection, investigation and apprehension of offenders and enforcement of the law.