NON-CUSTODIAL SANCTIONS IN NIGERIAN CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE AND THEIR APPLICATIONS DURING SENTENCING: A MYTH OR REALITY

Abstract

Non-Custodial Sanction refers to a form of sanction which is apportioned outside the physical facility designated as a prison and is administered by the state or by other agency on behalf of the state. It is usually evoked in the sentencing of less violent (petty) offences such as traffic offences, victimless offences, misdemeanours, delinquencies, etc other than serious offences. As doubt has grown against the usefulness of prison-based punishment, experts have tried to establish other profitable measures to help achieve result for the victim, offender and the state at large. This is a pure shift from the modern over use of imprisonment that consumes the tax payers’ resources. Prison –based punishment has shown to be counter-productive as it has fallen short of rehabilitation and reintegration of the convicted offenders back to the society, weeding out recidivism among those convicted of minor crimes due to the mixing of all manners offenders in a particular cell, as well as for certain vulnerable populations. This paper seeks to unveil if non-custodial sanctions as entrenched in Nigeria criminal justice system are applied in practice or not. The paper finds that despite the numerous provisions for non-custodial sanctions vis-à-vis probation, community service and restitution/compensation in our criminal laws, yet, they are myths in their applications due to some obvious setbacks. This study therefore recommends solutions to the x-rayed setbacks which would guarantee practicable non-custodial sanctions in the Nigerian criminal jurisprudent.