Moses Ochekwu

The Correct Correctional Officer A CORRECTIVE APPROACH IN CORRECTIONS BASHIRU ADAMU AND UMAR ABUBAKAR ACIMC, MNIM, ANIPR, FCAI Assistant Controller General National PRO Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Foreword 3 Endorsement 4 The Correctional Officer And Nation Building 5 Chapter One: Why Am I A Correctional Officer? 6 Chapter Two: What Is My Mindset About Prisoners? 7 Chapter Three: What Is My Role As A Correctional Officer? 8 Chapter Four: How Do I Work As A Team With Other Officers? 9 Chapter Five: The Welfare Of The Correctional Officer 10 Chapter Six: How Are You Telling The Story Of The Service? 11 Chapter Seven: Do You Have A Retirement Plan? 12 Chapter Eight: Upholding The Prisoners’ Rights 13 Chapter Nine: The Prison Of My Dream Introduction It’s impossible to think of inmates’ rehabilitation, reformation and reintegration into society without focusing on the incredible work that has been done by our correctional officers. Thanks to religious organizations, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals who are passionate about the reform and success of our prison system in diverse ways and doing a lot around the welfare of inmates in jail. All of the abovementioned organizations can’t access the correctional facilities and have seamless work with inmates without the guidance and assistance of correctional officers who are the custodians by law of those who are behind bars. It’s like the complication of having a good seed with prospect but not having the right kind of soil to plant the seed. The beauty and the potential quality of the good seed find expression on healthy soils. The great works of organizations and individuals around correctional facilities won’t yield the colours of success that has created so much impact if the correctional officers didn’t provide the atmosphere and understanding to make the efforts count. Our correctional officers play pivotal roles in ensuring the safekeeping and welfare of those in incarceration; this has a multiplying positive effect on the security architecture of our nation. Our correctional officers work day and night in standard ensuring that all prisons nationwide are administered according to the procedure of the law and managed in conformity with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Offenders in custody. The mileage of the success ratio is worth appreciating. Are the correctional officers perfect? No. Do they have challenges? Yes. Are they being appreciated enough? No. Can we motivate them to do more? Yes. Are there corrupt officers? Yes. In every organization of any shade, there are the good people who work tirelessly for the progress of the institution they represent while there will be the bad ones that are always looking for opportunities to compromise their work for selfish purposes. This flaw line is a reality we have to deal with and minimize its effect. As a founder of a nonprofit social organization that is focused on inmate reformation and transformation, I have worked for over a decade now within the Nigerian correctional service space. I started from Otukpo correctional facility to Kaduna Medium Security Custodian Centre, to Kaduna Open Prison, to Gboko Custodian Centre, to Igah Farm Center, to Kiri Kiri Medium Security Custodian Centre and Kuje Medium Custodian Centre. I have worked with different superintendents, wardens at different levels within the space of correctional center. I am encouraging any person who works or will take the oath to work in the correctional institution to note that this work is a calling. It is important to have the understanding of this background orientation. The sensitivity of the job can’t be taken for granted. The demography of the people that are served within this space are folks who are behind bars. So much is required to manage such people that are mentally threatened, frightened and damaged in many cases. Indeed, the work of correctional officer is divine. The service to humanity and the nation in this capacity is critical to the success story of the nation. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 1 The height of the demand of the job in the reformation of prisoners is a strong protection layer the nation enjoys. The failure in the handling of the management of offenders in incarceration would be a planted disaster that would consume any nation exposed to such ill. The delivery on the reformation of inmates has correctional officers strongly participate in the process to protect the society at large. The bliss of the nation is well defined in this protection cover secured from behind the bars. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 2 THE CORRECTIONAL OFFICER AND NATION BUILDING “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” ― Nelson Mandela A young man who was involved in crime became hopeless when he got into prison. He was sentenced to about four years in imprisonment. While in incarceration he was humble to learn a skill in tailoring. His teacher was a prison officer in Otukpo Medium Security Custodian Center. The teacher taught this young man tailoring and morals. By the time this young man finished serving his term in jail, he was able to kick start his tailoring outfit in the open community and took a step further in training about fifteen (15) other young people. This is one among many impact stories of correctional officers contributing to nation building in converting damaging liabilities to blissful assets. There is another young man I know that I closely worked with while he was in prison. He came into prison to serve two years jail term. In his time in incarceration, he was engaged in activities that were approved by the Correctional Service Authority; this young man conceived the dream of starting up his own school. He had his academic experience within the College of Education platform; upon his release in 2019, he started his own school in Kogi State, Nigeria. As of today, he has more than six hundred (600) pupils with about fifteen (15) staff in his school. I strongly believe that all around prisons across the world, there are amazing and incredible stories of transformation coming out from jails through the intervention of correctional officers who are dedicated and passionate about their job. These are officers that have risen above the ill attitude of conventional correctional officers that deploy bully, hate and indiscretion in suppressing inmates but who is telling the story of the inspiring correctional officers pulling gold out of mud the inmates were previously condemned to? How do we as general public perceive the officers working daily with inmates of different background? It’s has always been very easy for the public to generalize on correctional officers. How fair is such public blanket judgment on the officers putting in so much to ensure the correctional facilities attain the colours of reformation status? When NGOs, CSOs, religious organizations and individuals, visits the prison, about 99% of the attention and intervention are often focused on the inmates. Now, don’t get me wrong, my NGO vision is about reforming inmates towards effective reintegration into the open society but over the years, I have learned that if we are going to effectively impact the THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 3 inmates, then the correctional officers need to be trained, retrained, motivated in various strength capacity and inspired to continue with the work of transforming the lives chained behind the bars. There is no nation anywhere around the world that can develop and make true progress in the strong presence of threatening insecurity. The security sensitivity drive is extremely critical to social economic development and stability of a nation. The true wealth of a nation is primarily defined by the level of security stability of the nation. The management of apprehended criminals is a strong determining factor of the success concept in transforming individuals that are security threats into being societal assets. The justice system serves the delivery of justice but that is obviously not enough in transforming inmates that are security threats. The correctional officers beyond working as security personnel in ensuring safety of lives also double as reformative agents. They are trained with the skill sets to reform inmates with criminal tendencies. The correctional officers are in the fore front of the reformation of inmates that are security threats. The capacity of the officers to deliver should be deepened, encouraged and molded in measures that reflect being compensated. The correctional officer in synergy with the judiciary, police and the executive arm of government is in a very influential position to make credible impact in the transformation process of correctional facilities holding inmates. This makes the job of a correctional institution vital in any nation. This is why Nelson Mandela said, “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.” It’s important that government of every nation work more with its Ministry of Interior or Home Affairs in ensuring that the welfare of correctional officers is properly looked into and improved on. The working tools and environment needed for the officers to perform optimally should be prioritized to secure all-round maximum result. The heart of this book is about drawing attention to the amazing work been done by correctional officers that has been sadly undermined. The insensitive loud wrong of the ill has to be righted with the right measure of support system and quality compensation institutionalized. This is what I think would be fair in acknowledging the sacrifices and efforts the correctional officers put into their work in ensuring inmates leaves correctional facilities transformed and rebranded into being societal assets. It is when the right is done by the officers that the demand for quality delivery could be rightfully made of them. The responsibility of sound delivery should be commensurate to the reward system the correctional officers benefit from. I have always believed that the biggest room on earth is the room for improvement, so, I encourage all our gallant officers to continue with the good work of nation building from behind the walls with the attitude of giving their all without reservation. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 4 1 Chapter WHY AM I A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER? Once upon a time, a pregnant lioness in her final moment gave birth and died. The newborn, lost and confused, wandered into a field and joined a herd of sheep. The mother sheep, seeing the cub, adopted it as her own, and the lion cub grew up imitating the sheep, bleating and grazing. Despite blending in, the lion cub felt a constant void and endured ridicule from the other sheep for being different. The taunts about its appearance and strange voice left the lion feeling like a disappointment to the sheep community. One day, a lion from a distant jungle attacked the sheep herd but spotting the cub among the fleeing sheep, the lion abandoned the chase and confronted the young lion. The cub, terrified, pleaded to be spared, insisting it was just a young sheep. The older lion, realizing the cub’s confusion, dragged it to a nearby river urging it to look at its reflection. The cub did that and was astonished; the cub discovered its true identity and roared triumphantly, frightening the sheep away. The cub had found its true nature, ending the mockery and finding its rightful place in the jungle. What lesson did you get from the above story about your person and work? What is your intention for joining the Nigerian Correctional Service? Do you know how different your work is from other security institutions? Do you know the importance and value you are adding to the nation by doing your work diligently within the Nigerian Correctional Service? WHO ARE YOU? I’m aware that you know that as security personnel in the correctional space, you are not a police officer, you aren’t a civil defense officer or military officer but a correctional officer. Your duty is unique to a special demographic of people whom you will keep seeing daily, some for months while some for years but they are special because they are incarcerated people who need to be disciplined and at the same time shown empathy and the possibility of the great asset they can be. If you do not have an understanding of why you are a correctional officer or why you want to become a correctional officer, it will be almost impossible for you to fully give your best to serve THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 5 this special group of people that many think are criminals, outcasts or useless. Dr. Myles Munroe of blessed memory who was referred to as an apostle of purpose was quoted to have said, “When the purpose of a thing isn’t known, abuse becomes inevitable.”As a correctional officer, I ask you again, what is your purpose for joining the service? Is it because of the salary? Is it because you have a brother or someone who used their influence to help you get the job? Is it because you have searched for other jobs without success then you decided to settle for this? Do you know how important a prison job is? The above questions can’t be answered for you; you will have to find the answer from deep down in your heart. I believe you have deep within you the answer to the question on why you joined the service. The maturity of your honesty in answering the question of why you joined the service would go the distance in driving your sense of fulfillment, motivation and inspiration to keep going on the job regardless of challenges that comes with the job. MOTIVATION BEYOND SALARY There is no amount of salary increment or promotion that will guarantee your inner satisfaction and fulfillment like knowing why you are a correctional officer. It’s very possible to join the service with a negative purpose in mind or without even knowing why you joined apart from becoming an employee of the federal government. I have good news for you. Now that you have this book in your hands and you are willing to be honest with yourself about the questions I’m asking, then you are up for a ride into the space of true fulfillment and purpose-finding on your job. Keep the questions ringing in your head and if you search within yourself and the answers you are getting aren’t something you are proud of, don’t feel bad, it’s a good place to know something is missing and there is a yearning to find solution to the void within. The maturity of being sincere with the answers you gave to the questions shows you are honest with yourself and I applaud you for that. If you cross the line of self-deceit to being honest with yourself on what you do and how you feel about what you do, then you are a material that can be trusted. A lot of people are selfish in attitude and that includes me but if purpose is burning within you, it would be easier to align yourself to the fulfillment of purpose. It’s worth noting that as human beings, we all have good in us, we can be humane in our daily activities, not necessarily perfect though. Let’s go deeper into the details of being a good person who is willing to bring that positive attitude into work to make a difference and build on the discipline of focus as a correct correctional officer. There are certain things you have to be conscious of to connect being a good person as an individual to profitable work attitude. You need to be definite on the consciousness of your person on the job you serve on. How do you see yourself? How will you approach your work? THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 6 What are you going to be doing differently about yourself and your job going forward? YOU OCCUPY A SPECIAL PLACE I strongly believe that the correctional officer occupies a special place in our society and country because of the nature of their job which entails security, welfare and rehabilitation of those who have gone against the laws of the land, are apprehended and sent behind bars. In the details of having the offenders back into the society better and not broken makes thejob of a correctional officer a sacred one and I applaud all officers from bottom to the top of management who are doing their best to reform the inmates. I like the baby lion in the story I shared earlier who due to circumstances didn’t know its true nature and couldn’t successfully blend into the sheep community until an older lion came to the rescue of the baby lion, taking it to the water to see its true reflection that it was not a sheep but a lion. I’m here to convince you that there is dignity in your job. You aren’t a common warden; you are a reformer who works with inmates helping them to see their true identity, empowering them to see that their lives have far more value than crime and vices that got them into the correctional facility. As a correct correctional officer: You are an officer of the law. You are professional security personnel. Your work is a noble one. You are a reformer. You are a destiny builder. You occupy a special place in our country as security personnel. You are an agent of positive change. If you don’t appreciate your work, nobody else will. The gap that would be created under such negative feel would wrongly affect work attitude that makes the delivery of work result difficult. And until the work attitude is right, result can’t be right. The correct correctional officer knows this fact and put self into the work with the right kind of self-believe and right work attitude. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 7 2 Chapter WHAT IS MY MINDSET ABOUT PRISONERS? “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking.” ― Zig Ziglar In my work, I mingle and interact a lot with correctional officers. One thing I realized is that some of these officers’ perspectives about their job and the prisoners aren’t healthy. They see the inmates as criminals and people who can’t be trusted. I am aware that there are rules guiding the job of being a correctional officer, and there are limits they can’t go beyond while carrying out the duty of engaging with the prisoners. This led me to believe that to effectively carry out reformation work, the officers on ground can’t reform the inmates when their mindset isn’t positive towards seeing the inmates having a good chance to be better. You can’t reform those you don’t trust and believe in. The trust demand on officers giving priority to sound relationship with the inmates and having the mindset to help them through the reform process does not suggest compromise on the rules of the job. It’s important for correctional officers to see the facility as first a reform center and not the cage of retribution for offenders under incarceration. The demand of a paradigm mind-shift from the traditional prison concept of holding down prisoners under the chain of punishment to a help center where the offenders have another chance to be remolded into being a better person is the new take correctional officers will have to embrace. This positive drive disposition towards offenders of the law serving jail terms does not touch on the dispensing of justice. What the reformation sensitivity of the offenders brings on board is the delivery of hope beyond retribution. This new reasoning in the management of inmates is a reality correct correctional officers will have to accept and unapologetically work with. It’s worth noting that as a correctional officer your impact begins when you believe in the outcome of your input, this will motivate you to put in more effort in impacting the inmates. NOT THE RULES THAT GUIDE YOUR JOB In the consciousness of working in line with the rules guiding your job, you have to know and understand who an inmate is; this is a good starting point towards having the right mindset towards your work. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 8 WHO IS A PRISONER? To have a better understanding of who a prisoner is, let’s define some terms associated with prison for clarity purposes: Incarceration – It is the state of being deprived of liberty and held in prisons, including pre-trial detention facilities. Prison – It is an authorized place of detention within the criminal justice system, including places used for pre-trial detention and imprisonment upon conviction. Prisoners – All persons who are held in prisons irrespective of their legal status, excluding children accompanying an incarcerated parent are called prisoners. THE POWER OF MINDSET If a teacher doesn’t believe in his or her students, it’s a waste of time trying to teach them. Parents who doesn’t love or believe in their children will not be able to truly nurture them. Citizens who don’t believe in their country will find it difficult to be patriotic. A correctional officer who doesn’t believe in the transformation of inmates through rehabilitation process can’t become a correct correctional officer. It’s a simple reality language of not being able to give what you don’t have. There are certain bends that can’t be taken if the will to drive through the demand of the bends are not defined and accepted. It is not enough to be a correctional officer, the demand of the job calls for being a correct correctional officer. The difference is in the will and re-orientation to accept the reformation sensitivity of inmates as the other side of the coin of retribution in the justice system. Every positive change starts from the mindset. This is why there is correctional officer training school for training new employees with rudiments of the demand of the work. The essence of the training isn’t just to inform or educate but to stretch the minds of the trainees towards believing in the ideals of what ought to be done on the job. THE PRISONERS When it comes to prisoners, many factors are involved in why they engage in crime or why they chose the life of criminality. There are different people locked behind bars in prisons; some are dangerous criminals, some are petty criminals, some are victims of circumstances and there are those who aren’t criminals. Poverty, bad association, lack of education, dysfunctional family, unemployment and personal choices are some of the reasons why people are in prisons. Dear correctional officers, I want to remind you that beyond an offender being called a criminal, inmate or prisoner, each person in incarceration is someone’s child, someone’s brother or sister, someone’s father or mother and someone’s uncle or aunty, and most importantly, they are all human beings. Therefore, the United Nations has made rules guiding imprisonment, one of which is the Nelson Mandela Rules. The UN Mandela Rules are based on the obligation to treat all prisoners with respect for their inherent dignity and value as human beings and the prohibition of torture and other forms of illtreatment prisoners suffer in prisons. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 9 Internalizing and working with these rules will transform the mindset of correctional officers towards reimagining who a prisoner is. This new understanding will lead to a positive step towards reforming the inmates with purpose as our slogan says, “Reform the inmates, protect the society.” Once our mindset about anyone is wrong and unhealthy it will be difficult to impact and transform such an individual. This, unfortunately, is the reason we don’t see the level of transformation we desire to have going on in prison despite several reformatory activities. As a correctional officer, you are like a caregiver, a nurse, or a parent working with a child or a very stubborn patient. Your goal is to rescue and make your child or patient better not condone his or her criminal activities but also not condemn his or her person due to his or her action(s). The application of the Nelson Mandela rules will help correctional officers transform in their mind into the new shape-thinking of respect for inmates and commitment to the ultimate goal of working towards the reformation of the minds of the inmates. If a correctional officer is not open to a positive mindset that believes in the reformation of offenders, intentionally working on a mindset that sees prisoners as people with potentials that need to be discovered, developed and deployed, the correctional officers might just be working for salary alone, which in such confined limitation can only deliver false or at best fainted fulfillment. Embracing a new mindset towards prisoners with empathy that doesn’t condone them but eager to engage them towards becoming a better version of who they are is a noble cause to explore. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 10 3 Chapter WHAT IS MY ROLE AS A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER? The officers who work directly with inmates as gatekeepers in the records office, welfare department, kitchen, as yard keepers, in the health service, vocational training and counseling, are in close range in positively influencing the inmates. Let me paint a picture of a motivating direct reward system for correctional officers. Imagine an award to be given to officers who have been diligent on their job. If the Minister of Interior makes the inmates to nominate officers they believe have worked excellently well on their welfare and reformation at heart and the officers are aware beforehand about such arrangement, what do you think would be their conduct towards the inmates? The officers would naturally go the extra mile to care for the inmates so to stand a chance for a pick for the Minister’s award. Let me make a more direct analogy. If there is going to be some juicy reward for officers with the right kind of inmates reformation driven attitude and the inmates are in the position to decide the officers that qualify for such benefits, do you think the inmates will recommend you for the award? Let me bring it a little closer home; why should the inmates recommend you for the award with the current attitude you put into your work? This time, let me make this a little easier for you to deal with. If you are called on to pick the officers with the right attitude to work and the commitment sensitivity to the inmates would you in fairness recommend yourself for the award? You need to deal with these questions in absolute sincerity to yourself. You can be the correct correctional officer the inmates are yearning for to give practical expression to the newly redefined correctional facilities. THE BEGINNING OF REFORMATION Dear officer, I believe that every department within the organizational architecture of the correctional service plays a vital role in impacting and reforming inmates towards effective social reintegration. I give my salute-honour to every officer at the top echelon of NCOS doing all the administrative jobs ensuring seamless operations of the service. I won’t be harshly insensitive to the junior and senior officers working directly in the yard not giving them their earned salutehonour. I strongly feel that the starting point of the reformation of inmates in the correctional facilities is trusting the competence capacity of the officers. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 11 The reformation of inmates won’t have life if the correctional officers are not driven in the capacity and will to run with the inmates’ reformation agenda. It is fundamental for the right kind of capacity building and shade of motivation incentive investment to be made in favour of the officers for their mental boosting to secure the desired delivery of the reformation demand of the inmates. We have to firmly recognize that the morale boosting of the correctional officers is the starting point to the delivery of the transformation experience drive with inmates and in the management of the correctional facility reality for the inmates. Can we work with the understanding that the reformatory work starts at the point of admitting inmates? At the point of documentation in receiving inmates into the correctional facility, reformation should start with how the officers at the gate welcome the inmates. The record officers should be well trained and should be a man or a woman with empathy, if possible a psychologist or a guidance counselor expert can be assigned the position of a record officer to engage each inmate before sending him or her to assigned cell. The experience an inmate gets at the point of entering the correctional facility will file into a sensitive compartment of the offender and what that is could either damage or prepare the inmate for a possible reformation journey. The inmate reformation agenda has to be strategic, intentional, and well packaged so for the delivery to be successful. The yard keepers and welfare officers are major influences towards what happens in the yard and cell that involves the inmates. Therefore, I will strongly suggest that this work definition should be assigned to matured officers with the right attitude. The details in the call of the delivery of these offices are too sensitive to be left to careless officers. We will not have a truly reformed correctional facility system if we as a nation are not intentional to have the result we plan to have in the process of turning offenders into assets to play for a safer open society when the inmates are released to the society. The correct correctional officers must be the officers who own their space in being competent educational and vocational skill trainers. The health and welfare service delivery must be another strong drive of correct correctional officers whose call to duty falls in line within that route. It is also important for the officers to be sound in the handling of arms. We cannot shy away from the fact of some inmates would be excessively dangerous as individuals and in the capacity of attracting possible jail break attempt either from within the correctional facility or support from friends and loyalists that could invade the facility. If the officers are not well armed and thoroughly groomed in handling of arms, they would be walking corpses on the job. SOME OF THE ROLES OF CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS A corrections officer (CO), also known as a Correctional Law Enforcement Officer is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. The correctional officers are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who have been convicted of crime and sentenced to imprisonment. They are also responsible for the security of the facility and its property as well as other law enforcement functions. In one of the many roles of the officers is to maintain order in the daily operations of the facility. The correctional officers are responsible for the care, custody, and control of inmates. A correctional officer has a responsibility to control inmates. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 12 Prevention of criminal activities in the correctional facility is one of the key components of an officer’s duty. Officers can utilize the prevention means to frequently search inmates and their quarters for potential threats such as weapons and drugs. Officers check for unsanitary conditions, fire hazards, and/or any evidence of tampering or damage to locks, bars, grilles, doors, and gates is a security routine officers shouldn’t take for granted. I believe beyond what I started here; the officers are doing more. This makes the officer’s role in the architecture of our country very relevant. You need to be convinced as a correctional officer that you are a vital player in the success equation of the nation having progressive success. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 13 4 Chapter HOW DO I WORK AS A TEAM WITH OTHER OFFICERS? There is no one that attained a great height that worked alone. The demand of what it takes to reach the top of any adventure requires more than what going solo can deliver on. The people that are celebrated as champions or winners are products of a great team. In individual sports that seem a person goes in alone and then emerges a winner like in boxing or the track race contest, it will interest you to know that every great boxer or athlete have a great team of coaches, instructors, trainers and motivation drivers around them that help them attain the top prize of success. It’s funny how the crowd only see the boxer win in the ring or the athlete blast the tape on the track without seeing the massive effort of their team in the win they see but the winners know that they could never had won without the selfless support of their team. This is the fundamental truth about winning. The team sensitivity to winning also goes in the practicality of attaining the height of success in the office work environment space. The things you can do all by yourself to emerge a winner are not things that are important enough to make big difference in the quality of life. If you went the path of running solo, you can be fast but if you want to go far, you must learn to work in a team and with a team. Starting from the Controller of the Corrections space and the deputies at the top of the institution, it’s important not just to recognize but learn to constantly appreciate the work and effort of all officers in the different units doing their bits to ensure the safety and welfare of inmates. To achieve more, the boss and team leaders should learn to carry their people along; learn to allow each department to grow, develop and maximize the potential of their offices and work together with other departments as a team. There is no single officer no matter how brilliant or high in rank or even at a high level of experience who can achieve the ultimate success of the work demand of correction in inmates and around the correctional facility working alone. As a correct correctional officer, there is a need to be a team player; there is a need to inter-depend on other officers in achieving the overall goal of the institution. The success design in the correctional space can never be attained in the effort of a single officer without the quality input of other officers being on board. It is literally not possible for a single officer to get the job well done all by self. It is never going to work, so, it THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 14 would be a fatal waste of time attempting to make a solo drive success story within the correctional space. It’s like pouring water on a piece of rock hoping it will grow. You can’t work against success track design and expect to manufacture positive result from the air. The success design in the correctional space is strongly tied to team work. EXAMPLE OF HOW THE BODY WORKS The body is a dynamic classic reality of the network of team work. You will agree with me that each member of your body functions in connection with other body parts towards making you fit for your daily activities and work. If one part of your body is sick, the whole body will be affected. If you are careful in treating a sick part of your body, you are indirectly treating yourself as a human being. When each member of your body is whole, you will be declared healthy by a doctor who examines you. The key point here is that wholeness is achieved collectively not as a single unit, therefore working as a team can’t be overemphasized. You can’t think of raping process and expecting the product to come out clean. It’s in the fool’s world that process doesn’t count for anything. If you are going to have the result you desire in victory, you will have to find out the principles that make the result you desire a reality and then go play on the process. LEADERSHIP HAS A CRITICAL ROLE TO PLAY According to John C. Maxwell, one of the leading leadership gurus of our time, he said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” The leadership of the correctional institution should learn how to effectively work with officers of diverse faiths, beliefs, tribes and ethnicities. No one should be victimized because of any of the above-mentioned. To do so is to demoralize a member of your team which isn’t good for the goal of the service. Every leader must find the maturity and sense of absolute responsibility to lead on the drive of the power of personal example. The essence of leadership is finding the co-ordination and inspiration to lead a team on merit, competence and other sustainable winning design of team play to win. When we come to the realization that winning is not possible without building a winning team, then the attention given to team play will rise and that way, any mountain of obstacle would be no burden to lose sleep over. If a well-defined team is on ground, there is no work challenge that can’t be cracked. This is how to encourage teamship as President Bola Ahmed Tinibu of Nigeria would call it. I dare to ask the leadership of the correctional institution the following questions: What type of change do you want to see in your officers? What are you doing to exemplify this change? What legacy will you want to leave behind? If you can genuinely find answers to these questions, then you are on the run of inspiring leadership. The leadership legacy is not what happens by chance. There is an inspirational drive in leadership that makes it legendary. Leadership is beyond positional status. There are people in leadership offices without the drive and heart of leadership. There would be no future in any assignment where the leadership in place lacks the heart and art to lead in inspirational capacity. The aim of this handbook is for it to serve as a companion that inspires, motivates and encourages correctional officers to do their work with the understanding that it is a sacred calling in molding and shaping destinies towards a better and safer society. But this can’t be achieved in isolation, it’s has to be a collective effort with a singular purpose drive as a team. Leadership is a function and inspirational leadership is a priceless gift in raising and defining a winning team. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 15 5 Chapter THE WELFARE OF THE CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS We can’t talk about a correct correctional officer without a corresponding welfare that motivates him or her to keep giving his or her best to the work. This chapter is like the heart in a human body system to the concept projection this book is driving. Correctional officers can’t be working tirelessly for the welfare of inmates while their welfare isn’t met. The easiest way to make anything work is to define motivation in reward system. Everyone finds inspiration in reward. To get the best of any system, define the reward and drive the motivation right. There is the elasticity capacity in every human to give more than enough if the motivation of reward is well drafted and driven. The success we hope to see in the correctional space would require the officers giving more and more into their job. This process can be pressed through the motivation of the reward system. MINISTRY OF INTERIOR Over the years, a lot of articles and papers have been written and speeches given about the welfare of correctional officers but has anything drastically changed for good since 1999, when we had President Olusegun Obasanjo coming out from prison to be Nigeria’s President? Has anything improved about the welfare of our correctional officers? What attitude is given to the correctional officers? Are they mere statistics in the pool of federal workers or is the value and sensitivity of their work consciously appreciated? The welfare of a correctional officer is directly proportional to their motivation to do the job they are saddled with. This isn’t just about the correctional officer, virtually every one of us that are working. The better our welfare, the more committed we are to our duty post. I believe the Ministry of Interior needs to look deeply into the welfare of our gallant correctional officers and improve on them. Salary Training Promotion Accommodation Allowances THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 16 Incentives Benefits Protection Retirement cover Better equipment and work environment for carrying out the job. Over the years I have worked from within the correctional facilities across States in Nigeria. I have listened to officers complain and murmur with less motivation to carry out their job. Recently, the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo took some unprecedented steps to pay fines for 4068 inmates across the country as a way of decongesting the prisons. That was a brilliant and legendary intervention move the Honourable Minister would be celebrated for in a life-time accolade. It required people like me and some others that are engrossed in the service to inmates in correctional facilities to take it on ourselves to publicize such amazing news on our platforms. To my greatest surprise, right under the post, some correctional officers started to attack the post, they said it was a misplaced priority, and they said officers have been given promotions for sometimes but it hasn’t been put to effect. The outpour of the bitterness of the officers broke my heart. It’s a rape to treat the correctional officers with such dirty attitude. To a very large extent, it is indeed a defeat of purpose to care for inmates without adequately taking care of the correctional officers. NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION AND CIVIL SOCIETY I’d like to deeply appreciate NGOs and CSOs (I’m part of this group) for the great job we are doing across the correctional facilities in Nigeria; well done but we can do more especially as it relates to the correctional officers. The data of our work concentration in the correctional facilities speaks for itself; most CSOs and NGOs primary concern has been the welfare of the inmates, we hardly think in the direction of the correctional officers because we believe the government is paying them. I agree that the government is paying the officers but we can’t claim to be deaf and blind regarding the plight of the gallant correctional officers. Government alone can’t get the job of correctional officers’ welfare motivation done. Therefore, I’d like to encourage all CSOs, NGOs, religious organizations and individuals working within the correctional facility to find a way to incorporate correctional officers in our yearly plans and activities in areas of leadership and capacity-building training, entrepreneurship, planning for retirement and life after service, family life, productivity at workplace and economic and welfare support as benefits to boost the morale of the correctional officers. What I have stated here are my individual suggestions, we can do more than I stated. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 17 6 Chapter HOW ARE YOU TELLING THE STORY OF THE SERVICE? The Nigerian Correctional Service isn’t a secret society nor should it operate as one. Over the years, for reasons I’m still yet to understand, I find it difficult to comprehend why the system has a culture of trying to operate in a manner that looks like they are hiding something from the public. We have about 244 correctional facilities in Nigeria, this includes some farm centers. These facilities are housing about 80,000 inmates with about 70% of them awaiting trials while 30% are convicts. It’s with a heavy heart that I say the Nigeria Correctional Service, over the years, hasn’t done well in telling its own incredible story of transformation through its reformation programs going on within the facilities across the country. These programs include vocational training, educational programs, farm centers and religious activities that have impacted several inmates including those awaiting trials. Unfortunately, this has left the majority of the general public who has never been to prison either as visitors or convicts to keep giving a negative narrative about the institution. Is the Nigeria Correctional Service perfect, no, are there traces of corruption in the system? I believe so. This like I said earlier isn’t particular to the service but in almost all institutions in Nigeria. The primary responsibility of pushing the image of the Nigerian Correctional Service to the public is on the shoulder of the institution and this is because whether the Nigeria correctional service learns how to tell her story or not, there are some inmates who have either served as convicts or awaiting trials inmates who tell the public about their experiences. Sadly, some of them will not talk about the positive impact of their term in jail. Do you know why? Negative news is a business for many and it travels faster than good news. WHY YOU MUST TELL YOUR STORY From the Dukpa Farm Center in Gwagwalada, Abuja, to the open prison in Kaduna and the 3,000capacity ultra-modern custodial center in Janguza, Kano State and more, there are amazing transformational stories and successes of reformation going on within the Nigerian Correctional Service. Some people awaiting trials, while still in jail, wrote their Senior Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination then enrolled for a degree program with National Open University and some of them have gone ahead to bag masters while still in prison. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 18 Why is the world not aware of these beautiful success stories? Some have learned vocational skills that have empowered them to become self-reliant in having legitimate means of livelihood. A number of inmates have learned how to bake; some have been trained in livestock management, and others in fish farming, all done within the four walls of our correctional centers. My question is, how is the Nigerian Correctional Service showcasing and telling these stories? Why is the perception of many Nigerians negative every time the Nigerian Correctional Service is mentioned? A GOOD PRODUCT DOESN’T SELL ITSELF Have you ever wonder why a successful and strong brand like Coca-Cola will still be massively engaged in publicity and advert, though it’s worth about $260.27 billion? They understand the value in telling their own story and shaping public perception of their products and services. If you are not telling your own story and taking charge of public perception of you, the public would form its own opinion of you with whatever material available to it. Often times, the stories that grow on the street on its own are speculations that don’t have facts on reality. The public can’t feed on vacuum. If you are not telling your story as an institution, the public would pick its story of you on the street, form its perspective of you and judge you by whatever it put together of you, true or false and you would be left to fight the hard drill of defending self against poor public perception that could have been formed on materials that may not even have been built on truth. There are too many gains in the wisdom of telling one’s story. If you are not telling your own story to the world, the good work you are doing would be hidden from public view. It’s important you raise your public stock value so to build an image and public trust credit. Public confidence is a huge capital to build on. As a government institution, you would be in need of public good-will and competence rating. The federal government understands the value of public trust credit and so would give keen attention to any of its agency enjoying good public will. The federal government would draw credit from any of its performing agency and give more support to such body and also keenly consider servicing the welfare of the personnel in the working agency. If you are not putting your story forward to gain the right public attention and trust, the federal government won’t give as much support needed to strengthen the agency. There are several federal government agencies competing for space in the attention card of the government. The federal government doesn’t always have all the budgetary allocation to fully fund all its agencies, so, would draw priority list and strongly consider effective agencies with strong impact and pulling public credit. This is a strong means of attracting the government quality support to function a lot better as a public organization. There are a lot more gains to telling your success story, to guide your public perception, win public trust and drive the right narrative of your deliveries and the good work you put into your task. Public perception defines everything for public offices. Take the responsibility to tell your story so to create the flow of your public perception direction. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 19 7 Chapter DO YOU HAVE A RETIREMENT PLAN? “Start with the end from the beginning” is a powerful word credited to Stephen Covey, the author of Seven Habits of Effective Person. In that book, Stephen mentioned that we should start with the end from the start. There is a whole lot in that statement. What it simply means is to have the end in mind from the start. It’s like a long distance race. The picture of the end point must be strong in your mental imagination from the start of the race. As a matter of fact, the design of the end is what shapes how you engage the race. Any long distance runner that starts the race with the beginning may not get to the end or profitably reach the end. In the journey of career, the picture of the end must start the race. The career journey is not a sprint that reaches the end in a flash. In a career, there would be many years investment; the journey won’t be all smooth and smiling. There would be moments of heat and career threats but the resilience built from having a strong tie with the end point of the journey would have supplied the right stamina to go through the storming stress in the career journey package and make the skin tough to survive the challenging moments. The brightest beauty in the wisdom of starting with the end is creating a picture of a happy retirement plan that makes the future not to be a nightmare like many career people have encountered. The concept of being mindful of the end from the start ensures the discipline of plan. If you don’t have a plan you are disciplined to on ground, you are not going to be able to swim through the ocean to find rest at the other end. You need to have a strong retirement plan that will drive you through the process of your career journey. There are a lot of Civil Servants and professionals that had beautiful careers but retired into penury and a broken life. The disaster is a reality that has made life hell for too many people. The circle will continue if there is no intentional drive to start from the end. The strength you have in engaging your job will decline as you age on. From the kick off point, the years count in your favour in terms of maturing on the job, gain of exposure, experience, opportunities, development of skill and a whole lot. The rise in productivity often goes with time stretch on the job but you will someday reach your prime on the job and the natural law of diminishing return would set in. At that point, your productivity capacity would begin to drop with the increased time you put into the job. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 20 For too many people, that is the point they begin to plan for retirement but experience has shown that such timing is always too late. You can’t afford to allow yourself to be carried away with the turn, twist and triumph of the job that you forget to plan for your retirement or exit from the job. You are not going to be on the job forever; at some point you are going to either step aside on your own or be put aside in one form or the other. The begging question is, at that point of exit from the service, what would you be going into? This question need to be strong in your thought and allow it shape your approach to how you define your exit from the job. The future is innocent; its reality may end up being a huge blessing or a dark long night of nightmare. The shape the future takes is formed from how the journey is started. The fear of the future has instigated a number of people to be dishonest on their job in the quest to save up or build fall back wealth they can count on. This thought is possibly the driving force of corruption in our world. It’s sad that a lot of people think this dishonest path and bury their entire plan in the cheat process. Sadly, some get away with it and that becomes a model for many other thinking they would be smart enough to also get away with the shameful act. What many people don’t see is the number of those that the practice of corruption destroyed their careers and so wrecked their future. If the people that suffered the damage of the wreck of corruption had stayed on the track of honesty with committed plan to retirement drive, they still would have been able to get into a future that is secured. The corruption highway is a dangerous path to be comfortable in. You can do a lot better than thinking of building a future on the trap-gain of corruption. Get a retirement plan to commit yourself to and be disciplined through the process. It’s surer to secure a future on a solid plan than running on the high way chase. You have a responsibility as an officer to be a good representation of the work space you are positioned in. You have to own your duty line and be patriotic enough on the job demand not to allow the low of incompetence, ill attitude or corrupt practices define your history on the job. Do all within your ability to be a part of the reform drive of the system and ensure the maintenance of acceptable standards of activities in the correctional facility management. Be in the heart of the professionalism push of how things are done within the prison management space. You are an employee of the federal government and so, you owe the nation the drive of loyalty on the job in ensuring you give the service the best of your ability. This book is written as a tool to appreciate, inspire, motivate and encourage correctional officers to accept their work as a sacred calling to mold and shape destinies towards a better life and inspire safer society. What we do with the offenders that serve their time in the correctional facilities and then returned to the open society goes the distance of shaping the society we will have to live with. The two sides to the coin reality of what the character of the released offenders are is either being reformed into being a better person fit for the organized society or being a wounded and angry soul in search for vengeance. How the offenders are managed while in the correctional facilities will determine what side of the coin we are going to have more of. This is the point the correct correctional officer comes to the rescue of the nation in the giant leap contribution to building a nation that is safe to live in. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 21 8 Chapter UPHOLDING THE RIGHTS OF PRISONERS There is always a biased mindset that condemned criminals as the society calls offenders remanded in correctional facilities. This biased thought pontificate on inmates not being worthy of fair treatment in incarceration. The public quickly forgets that offenders held in correctional facilities are humans and should be protected by law. It’s unfortunate that the biased mindset of the public against prison inmates also have expression with some correctional officers. The officers relates with the inmates with anger and particularly the offenders with very grievous offences. They look at the inmates and all they see are the crimes that brought them into the correctional facilities. It will be difficult to be friendly with anyone you condemn in your subconscious with strong conscious expression of the hate. When correctional officers are caught up in the web of being unfriendly with inmates, they go pressingly hard on them, step on their human dignity either consciously or not realizing they’ve crossed the line. They just get carried away with the thought that the offenders should never enjoy any peaceful feel. As a correct Correctional Officer, one of the things that will distinguish you, give you the space to impact inmates positively is the intentionality of working with empathy and upholding the rights of prisoners even when they are exposed by law to have been condemned to imprisonment. In the state of being incarcerated, the inmates do not deserve to be dehumanized. They are still protected by law even in their state as prisoners. The prisoners have rights that should be protected and respected. The correctional facility is the second chance they have at life to make amends for their failed character and be better people. The correctional officers are their first line of hope of support to transit into better characters with the possibilities of being assets to the society they once terrorized. The correctional officers will really have to up their maturity in handling the offenders and rising to accept the rights prisoners have that the correctional institution should respect. This understanding needs to be stamped in the heart of all correctional officers. It’s easier to take the path of ramming down prisoners serving terms in jail considering the pain they inflicted on their victims. In many of the cases, the crimes committed are mindless and brutal rape on humanity. The victims of the crimes and their loved ones would emotionally want to see the perpetrators of their excruciating pains suffer the worst kind of treatment in incarceration and sincerely it is THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 22 understandable. I identify with the pain and agony of victims of brutal crimes and any kind of crime at all. However, there is a bigger picture to be protected against the pain of the emotions we all feel as humans. It’s good when the offenders face the law for the crimes they committed. The retribution of the wrong get to be served but it does not have to end there. There is a higher ground in reform to complete the entire process. Ironically, our societies are safer when offenders are reformed and given the chance to be better human beings. The correctional facility is part of the justice process. The sentences in the court that put offenders in correctional facilities do not terminate the right the offenders have as humans and citizens of the nation. There are some obvious rights their status as offenders would have robbed them off but the ones that are secured should be upheld and respected by correctional officers. It’s also bad that many offenders are not aware of their rights even in their condemned state in incarceration. The correct correctional officers rise above their emotions to ensure that inmates have access to their rights: Right to be informed of their rights and obligations: At the point of admission each prisoner should be properly informed of their rights and responsibilities in the yard. Right to legal representation: It’s the right of every prisoner to have a legal representative. Rights they have are non-negotiable Right to be properly fed: Every prisoner must be fed with three meals daily. Right of appeal: Within a specific duration of 30 days from the date of sentence, a prisoner has the right to appeal against conviction and sentence. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 23 9 Chapter THE PRISON OF MY DREAM “The prison yard is not a goldmine or an oil field; the prison yard is full of human beings who have potentials that are more valuable than gold and oil.” ­­̶Bashiru Adamu My heart yearns for an ideal correctional center that makes the center the institution that reforms offenders in making better society. I can’t take my head and hands off pursuing this reform system that guarantees decency, dignity and respect for the human value of the inmates and ultimately makes the larger society safe from the threats of reprisals from bitter ex-cons heading back behind bars. I have my heart in my head dreaming for my hands to deliver on a prison system where prisoners have more than five modern economically viable vocational training skills to choose from as a means of earning a decent living when released from the correctional facility. How beautiful it will be to have a large part of our universities and polytechnics run some of their programs within the prison. Imagine having different sporting activities in prison as a way of easing mental stress, driving fitness and professionalism in the inmates. Imagine a prison where prisoners have a sense of belonging, where correction and inmate reforms are the major focus; a prison where prisoners have access to a library, reading books authored by Nelson Mandela, Ben Carson, Napoleon Hill, Barack Obama, Mike Murdock, Stephen R. Covey, and a host of other lifechanging books in different fields of life? Can you dare to play with your imagination on the correctional facility system that places priority on the reform of offenders? Can you attempt to visualize the possible transformation that would run through the minds of the inmates? How impactful would that be? This is the reality of the possible bliss we are committed to as social change makers! My mind is capturing a redefined correctional facility that takes inmates out of the prison limitations in their minds despite being locked behind the giant walls of the correctional facility. Can you dare to picture for a moment holding a forum where the inmates can debate on issues that are relevant to them and the society at large? If you can, envision with me the impact we would be making on the general society if these debates from inside the prisons are aired on our national radio stations. Imagine again with me, that we have what we call the Prison Dream Talk (PDT). THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 24 This would be more like a TedTalk in prison handled by a professional coach on public speaking and pitching who would coach the inmates on how to pitch and speak effectively. The frame would be for inmates to give a ten-minute talk on their lives, the crime(s) committed, reformation experience and lessons learned that could benefit the outside world and what they intend to do when released. The goal is having an inclusive space to fight criminality from different approach with a strong drive to discourage the crime act. Imagine we have the opportunity of working with government and private organizations to invest in these ideas as a way of effective reintegration of ex-cons? This is the reason I believe incarceration should be taken seriously and redefined globally and made inclusive for the benefit of the inmates, the prison system, and the general society. If ideas truly rule the world, we know ideas aren’t found in the sky but in the hearts of people, including prisoners. The drive for prison reforms that reflect human dignity and present hope for genuine transformation of inmates must gain steam in public advocacy, government commitment and citizenship acceptance. The concept of correctional tone in the prison system should be holistic and reflective. In the presence of the punishment-focused correctional system in Nigeria, several inmates have been able to dream again by connecting to their innate potentials and passion, and today, many that have gained their freedom are doing well outside the prison walls without crime. Imagine if the correctional system is strong on rehabilitation of inmates; the result that would be fetched would be akin to goldmine worth. I do not intend to stick on or exaggerate the flaws in the punishment-focused system. I see this system flaw and our little push to change the narrative as a poetic parallel of the modern-day “The Oak and the Calf” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the struggle against the iron curtain of the communist, Soviet Union, imprisoning a phenomenal literary icon. In clear terms, without mincing words, my intention here is to challenge the current narrative in the operation of the prison system in many countries were prison serve as a death sentence to hope, dreams, and potentials that could have benefitted communities and the nation or maybe the world at large. By now you know that my goal with this book is clearly to shatter the latitudinal and longitudinal cages that have incarcerated willing and unwilling inmates in every ramification of existence, seeking through the words here to inspire them to escape from the mental incarceration caused by many prison systems across the globe. I can’t talk about the prison of my dreams, without mentioning the regional correctional officers. Can you imagine a prison system, where wardens’ welfare is a huge priority so as to motivate them to be tonal about influencing the inmates positively? The idea is to make the inmates rise above the bitterness that saw them incarcerated in the first place. We must recognize the double jeopardy of first incarcerating people for the crimes they committed or didn’t commit, and secondly, especially in developing countries, we have an unfriendly system and facility that in itself is a punishment. We need to do the needful of creating the much needed healthy balance. It is important I make this point; the flaw system we largely run in our correctional space is not encouraging inmates to learn and engage their minds positively while they do their time or await their trials. The resultant negative effect is seen in the statistics of recidivism across the globe with the United State of America having the highest rate of relapse at 76.6% while Norway has one of the lowest rates of recidivism at 20%. In my own country, Nigeria, the rate of recidivism stands at 68% as at November 2015. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 25 To address the global trend with data clearly revealing the failure of punishment-focused system, we must be more intentional and innovative in trying different impactful and sustainable approaches to ensure the entire prison service system begins to record attitudinal adjustment as the ultimate goal for the correctional concept of incarceration. In more detailed tone, we are better working on the possibility of introducing a restorative justice system in our prison circle, rather than just focusing on the punitive system. This dream is born out of my twelve years’ experience of walking and working within the prison space in Nigeria through our nonprofit organization, Dream Again Prison and Youth Foundation. I strongly believe in the concept of reformation for inmates and in the same strength of passion, the correct correctional officers should be rewarded for being the hope giver to a set of people that are confused in their identity that led them to the crime lifestyle that made them inmates in correctional centers. We are better positioned to have correctional officers who understand and accept the bigger picture order of reforming inmates. THE CORRECT CORRECTIONAL OFFICER 26