Transformative Justice in Action: AWJAI’s Prison Intervention at Suleja Custodial Centre

Justice lies at the heart of meaningful advocacy and transformative justice guides the work we do every day.

On January 25, 2024, AWJAI advanced its prison intervention project by leading a team of University of Abuja law students to the Suleja Custodial Centre.   A journey driven by compassion, a commitment to learning and a shared vision to advance transformative justice for individuals whom society often overlooks shaped this visit.  Through this engagement, we combined practical legal training with direct service to inmates in need.

Consider this, imagine spending nine (9) months in prison not for a violent crime, but simply because you could not pay a N30,000.00 fine.  For many individuals, this situation is not hypothetical, it defines their daily reality.

They remain behind bars not because they threaten society, but because they lack the financial means to secure their freedom.  As a result, poverty becomes a driver of prolonged detention.

At AWJAI, we firmly reject a system that ties justice to financial capacity.  Therefore, through our prison intervention project, we actively confront this injustice.  We have launched an ambitious mission to secure the release of 100 inmates by February 2025 by combining legal aid with financial support to cover minor fines and settlement sums.  In doing so, we translate our commitment to transformative justice into measurable action.

At Suleja, our lawyers, paralegals from the University of Abuja Law Clinic and AWJAI programme officers met directly with inmates, listened attentively to their stories and carefully reviewed their legal situations.

During one round of engagement alone, we met with twenty-one (21) inmates and immediately began taking concrete steps to address their legal needs and move their cases forward.

Ultimately, we do more than pursue individual releases, we challenge a system that allows poverty to keep people in prison long after when they should regain their freedom.

Transformative justice requires that we stand in the gap, provide meaningful support and work intentionally toward a system that treats every person with fairness and humanity.

Together, we can build a justice system that remains compassionate, accessible, fair and firmly rooted in transformative justice for all