Nigeria To Free Some HIV-Positive, Terminally Ill, Elderly Inmates
Nigeria plans to release 25,000 prisoners, including HIV-positive inmates, elderly prisoners and prisoners with other terminal diseases, in an effort to reduce the country's prison population by half, Justice Minister Bayo Ojo said on Wednesday, the AFP/Independent Online reports (AFP/Independent Online, 1/5). The government also will release inmates who have been awaiting trial for a longer period than the sentences their alleged crimes would require, as well as those whose case files have been lost. Sixty-five percent of the 40,444 prisoners in 227 prisons nationwide fall into these categories (BBC News, 1/5). The government hopes by the end of the process to have reduced the number of inmates to between 15,000 and 20,000, Ojo said (Adigun, Associated Press, 1/4). The process is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, according to Xinhuanet (Xinhuanet, 1/5). The government also will create six transitional houses where released inmates will receive education and training (BBC News, 1/5).
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