The Ebonyi State government yesterday said it has secured a bill to establish a custodian correctional centre in 2025 fiscal year.
The State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Ben Odoh, dropped this hint on Tuesday during an interview with journalists in Abakiliki, the state capital.
Barr. Odoh noted that the centre which was captured in 2025 budget, would only admit offenders convicted in minor crimes.
His words: “We are the first state to pass the bill establishing custodian correctional services and the law provides for non-custodian measures for incarceration.
“That is to say, we are going to have prison farm to be sentencing minor offender. These offenders are people who stole chicken, goats.
“So instead of sending them to a warehouse called prison we send them to state own prison farm to farm as punishment.
“And after serving their sentence they go home with some percentage of what they have worked for Section 68 of that law provides the ratio for sharing which is 50:20:20:10.
“50 percent will be saved for the inmate, after serving his jail terms, he go home and establish his own business.
“20 percent will be for his feeding and another 20 percent will go into government IGR, while 10 percent will go into the prison for maintenance of the facility.
“These are the things we intend to achieve in 2025”,he stated. END//