The Public Complaints Commission (PCC), the country’s ombudsman, has advocated improved living conditions for prison inmates nationwide.

PCC’s Chief Commissioner Abimbola Ayo-Yusufu made the call at stakeholders and public hearing on developments in Nigerian prisons on Wednesday in Owerri.

Ayo-Yusufu said the commission had noted the facilities’ condition, which directly affected the welfare, treatments, medication, environmental and sanitary conditions of inmates in various facilities.

“Our aim is to get the National Assembly to pass bills that will bring about reforms from the Police, Judiciary to the Correctional Centers,” he said.

He urged the stakeholders to proffer workable and enduring solutions to the challenges of decongesting the prisons, reintegrating inmates into society, and equipping them with various vocational training.

Also, the PCC’s federal commissioner in Imo, Mike Uzodimma, who read a report of the investigation carried out by the commission, decried the prison’s deplorable condition.

Mr Uzodimma said most inmates were held in squalid and congested cells without adequate care.

According to him, the situation often leads to frequent avoidable deaths and the outbreak of diseases, especially skin and respiratory infections.

“Awaiting trial inmates charged for minor offences are regrettably accommodated in the same cell with persons being tried for kidnapping or hostage-taking,” the PCC Federal Commissioner explained.

Uzodimma added, “Inmates are grossly malnourished and pale, following complaints of the food rations being unfit for human consumption as contractors frequently supply unwholesome food items.”

He further said the Owerri Correctional Centre clinic was grossly inadequate to deal with inmates’ health challenges, especially in providing drugs to treat malaria, typhoid and skin infections.

“Clearly, Nigeria is trailing a far distance behind the civilised world in the quality of welfare received by the inmates,” he said.

Mr Uzodimma called for establishing more facilities to decongest the Owerri and Okigwe facilities, including adequate funding for the sector to improve inmates’ welfare, among other recommendations.

“We have agreed that between today and the next two weeks, all the sectors involved, directly or indirectly, ensure that we write officially all complaints for channelling to the National Assembly, state and federal governments for action,” he said.