Abstract

Modern penal incarceration system is fraught with many challenges; which have stirred up agitation for a complete overhaul or outright replacement by the abolitionist’s philosophy which emphasizes that the contemporary idea of prisonization has gone beyond physical confinement. Correctional facilities in Nigeria have become more holding facilities where suspects or simple offenders are bred into hardened criminals as well as avenue for stateoppression rather than functioning as reform centers. There is a plethora of challenges inherent in the post-colonial incarcerating system. These include, inadequate rehabilitation facilities, congestion, custodial morbidity, recidivism, and disproportionate population of awaiting trial inmates resulting from elongated court trials. Compared to the precolonial practices, the post-colonial prisons in Nigeria are solely run by the State to the dangerous exclusion of the community thereby compounding the ease of correction and reintegration. It is against this backdrop that the inherited penal system was examined to determine its viability in contemporary Nigeria.