On Friday 8th February, 2013, the Enugu State Judiciary hosted an Extraordinary Forum for the high ranking officials of the Nigerian Prisons Services Enugu and Enugu State Judiciary. The meeting which was organized by PRAWA and Justice for All project, took place at the conference room of the Enugu State High Court with the aim of discussing ways forward to ease off all obstacles and clogs that bring about delays in criminal justice delivery in the state especially as it concerns the Judiciary and the Nigerian Prisons.

Hon. Justice B. E. Agbata, the Chief Judge of the Enugu State who chaired the forum agreed that he will send practice directives to the Enugu State Judges that they should instruct their court clerks to include in all Production Warrants the following: the Magistrate Charge Number, the High Court Charge Number and the Court Name and Location. He added that the instruction will include that every Production Warrant should be received by the prisons not later than 48 hours before the court date, that all custody cases should be between 9am to 2pm to allow time for the arrival of the inmates and for their early return to the prisons and that Court Cells should be provided for keeping the inmates prior or after their court appearance before their transportation back to the prison is made available.

The highlight of the forum was the guided tour of both the Female and Male Cells within the premises of the High Court (which were not currently in use) with Chief registrar, the Controller of Prisons Enugu, PRAWA and J4A Enugu Office staff. The tour was to enable the Controller of Prisons and Officers In charge of Prisons to inspect and approve the facilities for use. The inspection team rated the facilities good for use but stated that they required fixtures of security iron bars (burglary proofs) on all windows. The forum also requested the Chief Registrar to inspect the other courts in the State to see if similar facilities can be secured for use for same purpose.

This is necessary because the provision will enable the Nigerian Prisons Service to manage the transportation of inmates in instances where they need to go to different locations to drop off and pickup inmates. The Chief Judge also promised to issue Practice Directives to Magistrates to encourage them to generously grant bail in all Environmental Sanitation– related cases. When the participants requested the Chief Judge to institute structured scheduling of cases for different days, he said he will have further reflection on this and send a feedback as soon as possible. On the request to have some courts (magistrates) sit inside Prisons, the Chief Judge was willing to endorse that but asked PRAWA to send a proposal on how it would expect such a process to be operated and the cases these courts will be addressing.

According to the Chief Judge, this was to enable the Enugu State Judiciary to decide on whether it will adopt the recommendation or not. Another major achievement of the joint forum was when it was agreed that the officers in charge prisons should phone to notify the courts through the Court Registrar whenever they are unable to come to court or are delayed in transporting Awaiting Trial Persons and inmates to courts and vice versa. All the officers in charge of the prisons gave their mobile telephone numbers to the Chief Registrar. Other landmark achievements of the forum include was the agreement of Chief Judge to the convening of the Criminal Justice Administration Committee (High Level Justice Stakeholders) and to review performance indicators (including report of court observation on reasons adjournments).

In conclusion, the Chief Judge agreed that the Jail Delivery Exercise which is an oversight process of the Enugu State Judiciary should be carried out regularly, involving all the stakeholders in a coordinated manner. He also advised that the joint Forum with Nigerian Prisons should be quarterly with to enable the two bodies track the progress or any other development of speeding-up criminal justice in Enugu state.