Certain rights are denied of prisoners because of or as a result of the custodian judgment passed on them by a court of law.

Prisoners are specifically subjected to restraint of movement and can, therefore, not have hold assurance of enjoyment of the freedom of personal liberty under the law.

However, that the prisoners is currently observing the sentence of court by being in custody does not totally loss his rights as a human being and must, therefore enjoy some basic rights despite the fact that he or she is being confined to prison. It is true that the prison administrators also helps to deny prisoners their rights and, by extension, the government by lack of will to promote enabling environment and treatment to the prisoners. The fact remains that there are still protected right of prisoners still in our law and legal system.

Therefore, the prisoners are not precluded from enjoying certain rights as entrenched in the constitution and other legal documents which are to be enjoyed by the citizens. The constitution, local statutes and international instruments protect certain rights that should be available to the prisoners.

These Rights of Prisoners are but not limited to the following:

Right of Prisoners to vote: This right is entrenched in the African charter on human and peoples rights. This is right to participate freely in government of one’s country, either directly or through representatives (is a provision entrenched in the African charter on human right). By and large, there is no gain saying that when a person is incarcerated it does not mean that he has forfeited all the rights that are legally accruable to him. A prison need not be disenfranchised by the mere fact that he is incarcerated. Therefore, a prisoner should also be given the right to elect the rightful leaders that he believes will promote his cause.
However, no law in Nigeria has positively excluded prisoners from participating in elections through voting. There was hardly any time duping the past election exercises where prisoners in Nigerian were given adequate consideration to exercise their franchise, and a case for the determination of his right had never gone to court.

However, it should be noted that, Article 3 of protocol No 1 of the European convention does not prevent placing restrictions on electoral rights which could be placed on individual depending on the nature of their offence. For instance, a prisoner who has seriously abused a public position or whose conduct threatened to under mine the rule of law or democratic foundations may be prevented from voting.

PRISONERS RIGHT TO HEALTH

Section 4 of the prisons Act, (2004) though acknowledges that a prisoner may be sentenced to prison with hard labour, gives a prisoner a measure of relief in case such a prisoner is not fit to carry out such labour as may be directed by the prison is confined. Section 4(3) of the Act provides that: the medical officer may order any prisoner to be excused labour or to perform light labour, and any prisoner ordained to perform light labour shall be required to do work for which he is certified by the medical officer to be fit.

In furthermore of the protection of the health right of prisoners, the prisons Act also provides that the Director of the Nigerian prison service of the Federation who shall have the general charge and superintendence of the prison system in Nigeria, may where it appears to him that by reason of the outbreak of disease within the prison by order under his hand direct that so many of the prisoners as may be indicated in the order shall be kept and detained in a building or place which is outside the prison and is specified in the order until such order is cancelled.

It should be noted that section 5 (2)(a) of prisons Act gives the Director of prison powers to make order for removal of prisoners to a separate place where it appears to him that the number of prisoners in a prison is greater than can be conveniently kept there and that it is not convenient to transfer the excess number of prisoners to another prison.

The European committee for the prevention of torture has states that even in the face of harsh economic reality, nothing can relieve the state of the need to provide for the health care of those it has deprived liberty.The African charter on Human and people’s Rights which Nigeria is signatory to, also provides that every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health. The charter provides that state parties shall take the necessary steps to protect the health of their citizens and ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick. Thus, in line with these provisions, the government needs to provide basic health facilities to everyone and sundry, including those who have been deprived their liberty through imprisonment. Now, the question is, did the Nigeria government leave up to expectation? According to the National Human Rights Commission prison Audit Report of 2012, few prisons in Nigeria had hospital or well-equipped clinics with medical personnel, while some neither had clinics nor hospitals but rather had first aid boxes. It noted that, in some cases, some prisons had personnel but no health facilities.

RIGHT OF SAFETY OF PRISONERS

It is necessary to note that, the safety of prisoners in custody is very important, as this is not an alienable right. It is an Obligation of the state to ensure the safety of prisoners in its custody and protect them from any form of violence or ill treatment from the state prison apparatus or other inmates.

The international instruments for the protection of rights do not directly impose positive obligation on the state to ensure the safety of prisoners however, extensive interpretation of the instruments would require the state to offer such protection.

For instance, article 10 and 1 of the United Nations international covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of human person.

Article 5 of the African charter on Human and people’s Rights equally provides that all forms of exploitation and degradation of man shall be prohibited. Also, it is provided that every individual shall be entitled to respect for his person and no one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right. The charter also provides that everyone shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person.

In clear appreciation of the above positions of law, it is necessary to note that: There have been reported cases of prisoners bullying other prisoners in Nigeria prisons, thereby subjecting the vulnerable ones to degrading treatments undue punishments, usurpation, death and other dehumanizing conditions.

In lieu of the above fact, the state have been urge not to shirk its responsibility to see to the welfare of the inmates to the extent of ensuring their safety in prison for if they do, it will amount to negligent on the side of the state. Thus, in Jamaican case of Daley vs Jamacia the state’s neglect of the constant complaint of an inmate who was regularly assaulted by other inmates was held to be in breach of article 10 (1) of the ICCPR. Similarly, the European court held in the case of Paul and Audrew Edwards vs The United Kingdom that the state has an obligation to take preventive operational measure to protect vulnerable individual from criminal acts of another individual in appropriate circumstances.

Therefore, the use of unwarranted force, torture and degrading treatments in all circumstances are prohibited under the law.

RIGHT NOT TO BE TREATED WITH CRUELTY

It should be reiterated that the fact a person has been confined to prison does not mean he has lost his right to be treated as human being. He, therefore, ought to be free from cruel and unusual punishment from the prison officials. The United State of America’s Supreme Court has constantly held that excessive use of force can constitute cruel and unusual punishment when the use of force by prison officials was not in good faith effort to maintain but rather is applied maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.In Gregg vs Geargia the court interpret the phrase cruel and unusual punishments to include those punishments that were unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain or grossly out of proportion with the severity of the crime.

However, such force prohibited could be used on a prisoner if the following things occurs:

It was use in order to prevent tail break
When such prisoner uses violence to the prison officer himself or any other prison officer or any person, or
If the prison officer using the weapons has reasonable grounds to believe that he or that other officer or person, as the case may be, is in danger of life or him or other grievous harm is likely to be caused to him.
RIGHT TO FAMILY LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

An incarcerated inmate should not be considered as losing all his affiliations, especially to his family members when in custody. The law recognizes that a prison should still have contact with his loved ones while still in custody. Article 12 of the UDHR provides that No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.

Furthermore, Article 23 of the international covenant on civil and political Rights states that: the family is the natured and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state Right and family life is guaranteed under section 37 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by providing in the Marginal note, for right to private and family life. It states thus: that the privacy of citizens, their homes correspondence telephone conversation and telegraphic communication is guaranteed and protected. Therefore, it seem from literal interpretation of this provision that, the law is only interested in the privacy of the family and not necessarily preventing the sinews binding the family together from breaking or detaching.

To be noted that, when a person is incarcerated and he or she is not given the opportunity for his family members to visit him in the prison, there is every likelihood that the cord that binds him to his family may be severed. It is therefore important that such rights should be protected.

The European court of Human Rights Recognizes that a prisoner should not be deprived access to his family members and that the state has the obligation to assist serving prisoners in maintaining contact with their families, which extends to transferring a prisoner to another to ensure closeness to his family members.

It should be noted that right to family contact is guaranteed under article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and it is not take away by the mere fact that a person is imprisoned but its exercise may be restricted. The above right is also recognized under article 16 of Universal Declaration of Human Right and it is dealt with in different ways by different jurisdictions. In some countries prisoners are allowed to have intimate relationship with their spouses while in some, they may have sexual relationship under very limited condition. It should be noted that, the European court of Human Right has set some standards in ensuring the rights to private life and freedom of correspondence.

The court states that correspondence between a prisoner and his or her legal representative is a privilege that prison staff or officials or any prison authorities whatsoever should not have access to read.
The court, in as much as the prison administrators have the responsibility of assuring that no contrabands are concealed in the correspondence received by a prisoner, such correspondence must be opened in the presence of the prisoner and must not be read by the prison administrators without the consent of such prisoner.
RIGHT TO FAIR TREATMENT IN DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AND PUNISHMENT

This right is of the view that, the prisoner who is being charged under a disciplinary proceeding has a right to know the charge leveled against him in advance and the person who made the charge’s’.

Therefore, in the case where there is breach of any disciplinary rules and regulation that guide the operations of the prisons, which the prison as well as the staff ought to countenance; it is pertinent that the prisoners must get fair treatment when being arraigned for any breach of the rules and regulations of the prison.

As has earlier noted in outline in this research, imprisonment is not a total condemnation. Imprisonment is meant to punish and not for punishment. The fact that a person is committed to prison by the court is not to say that he/she has totally lost all his right as human being.

Therefore, a prisoner should not be subjected to an undue treatment. So any right that is not taken away from the prison by the court during his committal to prison should be allows for them and as such be protected. Thus, the Kampala Declaration on prison condition in Africa (1996) stipulates that, prisoners should retain all rights which are not expressly taken away by the fact of their detention.

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In saner climes, definitely not in Nigeria