By ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH
LAGOS—Lagos State Government, weekend, clarified that its planned non-custodial sentence was not a replacement for prison sentences as persons convicted for serious criminal offences or considered dangerous would still be sentenced to terms in prison.

State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, said the recently- introduced non-custodial sentence into the state’s administration of criminal justice system will only be applicable to minor offences.

Convicts under the system, he said, would be sentenced to unpaid community service in lieu of prison sentence with a stipulated number of hours.

At a training on community service non-custodial sentences organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice for Magistrates and Community officers at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, campus on University of Lagos, Ipaye said the reform had not taken away the power of  magistrates to sentence hardened criminals to prison terms.

He said it was rather to extend their powers to sentence those who were convicted of lesser crimes or were unable to pay fines to community services.

Ipaye said: “The law does not take away magistrates’ power to pronounce prison sentences on convicted persons. It is just an alternative to sentencing people to prison.”

The Attorney-General said the introduction of the system will resolve the problem facing the administration of criminal justice in the state and reduce prison congestion.

He explained that aside heavy case loads leading to detention of many awaiting-trials, the problem of overcrowded prison, exacerbated by the fact that a large proportion of those incarcerated were convicted of minor offences would be addressed.

He said: “Going to jail has very destructive consequences for the convict, the person loses his job, his family is displaced while he is stigmatised when he comes out of prison.”