The agency is headquartered in Abuja,[1] and it is under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Defence Immigration and Correctional Service.
[4] The Nigerian Correctional Service is an arm of the Criminal Justice System domiciled in the Ministry of Interior.
The operation of the Service is supervised by the Ministry of Interior and the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Corrections Board.
[5] The Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service is Haliru Nababa, who was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari[6] on 18 February 2021.
The functioning of these courts and the police in that colonial setting necessarily meant that prison was needed to complete the system.
But those who were later to oppose British rule were usually deported as happened in the case of Jaja of Opobo and King Dappa of Bonny.
The declaration of protectorates over the East, West and North by 1906 effectively brought the entire Nigeria area under British rule.
They were also very poorly run, and the local prison conditions varied from one place to another in their disorganization, callousness and exploitation.
But so long as they served the colonial interests of ensuring law and order, collecting taxes, and providing labour for public works, they were generally left alone.
Besides, they were limited in application to those who were convicted or remanded in custody by criminal courts of the British-inspired supreme or provincial types.
It was at this time that Colonel V. L. Mabb was appointed Director of Prisons by the then Governor Sir Donald Cameron.
He also transferred the Prisons Headquarters formerly in Enugu to Lagos to facilitate close cooperation with other Department of State.
In addition, he took classification a step further when in 1948 he opened four reformatories in Lagos and converted part of the Port-Harcourt prisons for the housing and treatment of juveniles.