A total of seven thousand, seven hundred and fourteen inmates are presently serving jail term in different prisons in Lagos State, including Kirikiri Maximum, Medium Security Prisons and Ikoyi prisons.

According to Correspondent, Jide Alli-Balogun, inmates awaiting trials are six thousand and forty-seven, while convicted inmates are one thousand, three hundred and ninety, condemned convicts are also two hundred and two, and life imprisonment are seventy-five.

Speaking during an on-the-spot assessment of the prisons, as part of efforts to decongest the prisons, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem reiterated government’s commitment towards decongesting the prisons, saying a lot must be done in decongesting prisons in the state.

According to Kazeem, there was hope in the horizon for the inmates as the government had set a committee headed by the Director, Office of the Public Defender, to review the cases of awaiting trials with a view to ensuring that the inmates did not continue to stay in prison unjustly or die in the process of waiting.

Kazeem, who said he had taken note of the drug situation of the clinics in the various prisons promised to seek the support of the state’s Ministry of Health for provision of drugs to the sick inmates.

The Justice Commissioner emphasised the need for the federal government to show more interest in the prisons and to work out a system to assists those who were sick, particularly to prevent an epidemic like meningitis likely to be occasioned by severe heat currently being experienced in the state.

He commended the state Controller of Prisons, Timothy Tinuoye and his officials on how they had been caring for the inmates, noting that they were well behaved in spite of the harsh conditions under which they lived in the facilities.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, said though the prisons were Federal Agencies, Lagos government was very concerned about the prison system as it was crucial to the administration of justice.

The Controller of Prisons, Lagos State Command, Timothy Tinuoye who commended the State Government for its assistance, called for more effort at improving the activities inside the prisons to ensure the rights of the inmates were not infringed.

Tinuoye has attributed the death of 32 prison inmates who died in one year in a particular prison in the state to their inability to access funds for good medication, describing the appalling state of health facilities in the prisons, saying often times, prison officials use their personal money to buy drugs for the inmates, while others live on the philanthropic gestures of churches and mosques which have been assisting in providing medications for the inmates.