Revisiting packer’s models: Examining Nigeria's criminal justice system in the COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 era

Abstract

This review study examines the administration of criminal justice process during and after COVID-19 era in Nigeria against the backdrop of two competing criminal justice process models: Crime control and Due Process. The outbreak of COVID-19 has pushed many countries, including Nigeria, to either reinforced or altered their criminal justice practices to reflect the reality of COVID-19. Arrest, detention and prosecution of offenders became clearly predicated only on the degree of seriousness and the overall interest of the society as against the previous practice that was predicated on ‘trump up charges’ and at the will and caprices of the operators of criminal justice system. The main question we ask here is: to what extent has COVID-19 mediated and impacted on the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria during and after the pandemic? Qualitative descriptive-narrative approach was adopted to synthesise the various data and sources (review of literature, reports from the media, reflective data and eye witness accounts) to account for what happened both during COVID-19 and post COVID-19 in the practice of criminal justice in Nigeria. Two dominant traditional ideologies/models (Crime Control and Due Process), and the less favoured one (punitive and nonpunitive victims' right models), interfaced at one point or the other and thus defined the character of criminal justice system in Nigeria 19 with crime control model however showing greater effects than others. The implication of our analysis is that during crisis, state and official's response to one of her crucial mandate oscillates and takes a paradigm shift form either mild to critical or severe as the case may be. The three models manifested in pre and COVID-19 criminal justice process eras though, crime control model remains a continuum and the dominant ideology which guides the operation of criminal justice system and process. Further implication is the imperative to improve the system by taking steps towards the direction of the non-punitive model of victims' rights which stresses crime prevention and restorative justice as the future value (ideology) for Nigerian criminal justice system.