‘Double jeopardy, a threat’ By Benson Ngozi Iwuagwu

THIS IS TRULY NIGERIAN..GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION

The efficacy or otherwise of the well- settled legal doctrine of “autrefois convict” or “double jeopardy” is one that should engage our attention, in our crime curtailment and control efforts. Particularly in regard to our management of the high, incidence of recidivism amongst ex-convicts and its grave socio- economic and security implications.

Naturally, man abhors a situation where a person is punished twice for the same offence. This natural disposition received legal endorsement and approval in the English case of Connelly v. DPP (1964) AC 1254 and has become a settled principle of law, constituting a complete defense in our ‘corpus juris’. Any person, who has been tried and convicted of a crime, can raise the plea of “autrefois convict”, should same charges be brought against him before any competent court or tribunal. Once that plea is substantiated, the accused is immediately discharged and acquitted. 

Has this principle always worked? The answer is Yes and No, depending on the context and circumstance, formal or informal.    Law is meant to regulate social behaviors, define relationships, rights, burdens and obligations. Law is the spirit of the social contract, upon which each man submits and surrenders some measure of his inherent freedom and liberties in return for recognition, co-operation and support of his fellow men. Law is meant to be even and not oppressive, where it is perceived as oppressive and not consonant with expectations and aspirations, defensive, retaliatory and survivalist plans are hatched against the oppressive system and its operators. Militancy in the Niger Delta and Boko Haram are examples.This, then, becomes a threat and scare for the establishment, its operators and the society. That is the case of the ex-convicts in our society today and the high rate of recidivism.   

We need to pause and reflect on the high incidence of recidivism and its socio-economic and security implications for our country and its development. Research studies have shown that about 67 per cent of those who come out of prison get caught in the crime web and return to prison, within two years of their release. If this is correct, what is our Justice, Security and Social managers’ doing about this? Does the word “Recidivism” feature in their crime control and management strategy sessions?
We cannot ignore the grave security implications of allowing the vicious circle and prison shuttle to continue, whether by convention or by complacence, the plight of ex- convicts must begin to receive adequate proactive attention and response in our socio-economic and security policies.     

Cognisance must be taken of the need for a formal response to the plight of ex-convicts who, having paid, in the words of Winston Churchill, their “due in hard coinage”, remain discriminated against, ostracised, stigmatised and consigned to the dung hill as it were, by the same society that had through its Criminal Justice System extracted its “pound of flesh” often with pints of blood. Our prisons are yet to become a place of reformation and rehabilitation, owing to infrastructural deficits and poor funding. Life behind the prison is gray and gloomy with furlong hope .The plight of ex-convicts is worse than a double jeopardy, given our poor socio- economic circumstances and the brimming unemployment market. 

Most inmates of our prisons are victims of terrible socio –economic injustice and oppression; to further subject such ones on exiting the prison, to lepros isolation and neglect is most cruel and unconscionable and, an exacerbation of our collective insecurity and loss. Something must be done. Perhaps, it is appropriate to draw a parallel with the fight against AIDS; the reduction in the number of death resulting from HIV/ AIDS is more a reflection of the benefit of the campaign against discrimination and stigmatisation of those suffering from the disease, than the efficacy of any curative drug. 

Before the massive campaign, sufferers were in hiding and dying in silence, stories even had cases where, sufferers deliberately spread the infection in response to the resentful, loathsome treatment they faced. The campaign came along and has been very effective. It has given hope, moral and spiritual (call it psychosocial) strength to the sufferers to face life. It has also put a moral restraint on employers, relations, friends and family, in the way they relate with HIV/ AIDS sufferers. 

This way, the society is better for it than, when the sufferers were treated like social lepers. Continued stigmatisation and discrimination against ex-prisoners particularly, the not rich ex-prisoners, who have served their sentence ,is not only inhuman, oppressive and provocative; it is injurious to our common good- safety, security, social capital and a spiteful reflection on our social civilisation. 
•Iwuagwu is the Anglophone African envoy of the Prison Fellowship International