Carrying Water in a Basket: The Symbolic Politics of Rehabilitation Programs in Nigerian Correctional Facilities, a Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Abstract

The Nigerian correctional system has officially moved from a punishment to rehabilitation system, especially after the enactment of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019. But there is some evidence that there has been little progress in meeting rehabilitative policy commitments in correctional facilities. This important interpretive synthesis explores this disjuncture metaphorically, using the example of “carrying water in a basket”, an idea that represents institutional or formal activity that results in compliance but not in long-term rehabilitative effects. The synthesis draws on the multidisciplinary literature in criminology, sociology, correctional studies, human rights, mental health, and education, with the aim of identifying shared themes of policy-practice decoupling, overcrowding and underfunding, gaps in professional services and mental-health services, and the exclusion of women, futurelessness, futility, and stigma associated with community reintegration. The analysis is based on a combination of the institutional theory, General Systems Theory, Social Learning Theory, Labeling Theory and Symbolic Interactionism, aiming at explaining the mechanisms and conditions that enable symbolic rehabilitation. The synthesis indicates that symbolic rehabilitation can not just be a failure of implementation, it can also be an organisational response to other competing demands for penal control, human rights compliance and institutional legitimacy. To achieve meaningful reform, non-custodial measures must be enhanced, correctional services must become more professional, gender and mental health considerations in corrections need to be addressed, educational facilities must be improved, post-release support must be structured, and the accountability system must be based on outcomes. The ultimate measure of rehabilitation should be reintegration rather than the existence of a programme.