HUMAN RIGHTS AND NIGERIAN PRISONERS--ARE PRISONERS NOT HUMANS?

In Nigeria, just like in many other parts of the world, one of the most extensively discussed issues on the public agenda today is the increase in prison population. The aims of imprisonment are protection, retribution, deterrence, reformation and vindication. Investigations revealed that the prison services have been,neglected more than any other criminal justice agency in Nigeria. For example, most of the prisons were built during the colonial era for the purpose of accommodating a small number of inmates. Human Rights are the basic guarantees for human beings to be able to achieve happiness and self-respect; consequently, in most jurisdictions, the Human Rights Act confirms that these Rights do not stop at the prison gates. However, most States fail to meet the Human Rights obligations of their prisoners. As regards to health, for example, every prison should have proper health facilities and medical staff to provide dental and psychiatric care among others. This article discusses the Nigerian Prison System and challenges, trends and the related Human Rights and Ethical issues in Nigerian prisons. Some of the unmet needs of Nigerian prisoners which include, inter alia, living in unwholesome cells, delayed trial of inmates, lack of voting rights, access to information, lack of conjugal facilities for married prisoners, poor and inadequate nutrition, poor medical care, torture, inhumane treatment and the need to protect prisoners in a changing world. The present report has policy implications for reforming prison services in Nigeria, and countries that sing from the same song sheet with Nigeria on prison services, to conform to the Fundamental Human Rights of prisoners in the 21St century.

Morphometric analysis of the postnatal mouse optic nerve following prenatal exposure to alcohol.

Pregnant female mice were divided on day 12 post coitum into a control and an experimental group. The experimental group was given a single intraperitoneal dose of 0.015 ml/g body weight of 25% solution of alcohol in distilled water while the control group was exposed to a similar weight related dose of normal saline. The optic nerves were isolated from the offspring of both control and experimental groups at wk 2, 3 and 5 (i.e. during the juvenile period of postnatal development) and analysed by light and electron microscopy. Although in both groups the optic nerve grew in size rapidly during the period studied, the rate of growth in the experimental groups lagged behind that of the controls. The difference was initially significant but tailed off, so that by wk 5 it was no longer significant. The time of initial onset and progression of myelinogenesis in the optic nerve of alcohol exposed mice also lagged behind that of controls. In both groups the size distribution of the myelinated nerve fibres in the optic nerve was unimodal with a positive skewing for all ages. The spectrum of size distribution of the nerve fibres was, however, broader in controls than in the corresponding experimental groups. With increasing age the proportion of small and medium size fibres was greater in the experimental group than in the controls, while for the large diameter fibres the reverse was observed. It is suggested that this study may shed light on the teratogenic effect of 'binge' drinking during pregnancy and that it is the critical period when exposure occurs that is more important than the duration of administration.

Myelinogenesis in the optic nerve of (C57BL x CBA) F1 hybrid mice: a morphometric analysis.

Myelinogenesis in the optic nerve of the mouse begins by the end of the first week of postnatal life and proceeds well into adulthood. The optic nerve from different postnatal age groups of (C57BL x CBA) F1 hybrid mice was analysed ultrastructurally and morphometrically. Features examined were the myelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibres, mean myelinated nerve fibre diameter, myelinated nerve fibre diameter spectrum, number of myelin sheath lamellae in relation to fibre diameter and age. Results obtained showed that the optic nerve of the mouse is populated entirely by unmyelinated nerve fibres at birth. Myelinogenesis begins at about the fifth postnatal day (pnd), with clearer evidence by the 6th pnd. It starts selectively with the largest fibres and then progresses to involve other fibres of decreasing diameter. After the onset, myelinogenesis progresses with increasing rapidity, becoming most intense from the second week up to the fifth week, so that by the end of the fifth week about 73% of fibres have become myelinated. From then onward, the process proceeds at a progressively diminishing rate until, by the 16th week, virtually all the remaining 27% fibres are myelinated. At onset, the myelin sheath is loosely wrapped around the axons, but with increasing age the myelin lamellae become more compact around the axons. The population of unmyelinated fibres continued to diminish so that at the completion of the process (16th week), they were only very rarely encountered. Myelinogenesis in the optic nerve of the mouse appears to follow a similar course to that seen in other central tracts having a similar fibre diameter spectrum.

Postnatal development of the optic nerve in (C57BL x CBA)F1 hybrid mice: general changes in morphometric parameters.

A morphometric analysis of the optic nerve in different age groups of (C57BL x CBA)F1 hybrid mice was carried out. Morphometric parameters examined were mean nerve cross-sectional area (csa), mean myelinated nerve fibre count, mean myelinated nerve fibre density and myelinated nerve fibre size distribution. The findings revealed that the optic nerve continues to develop well into adult life. Growth in calibre was very rapid during the early stage of postnatal life, but progressively slowed with age thereafter. No myelinated nerve fibres were observed before the 5th day of postnatal life. Similarly, once myelination was initiated, it progressed very rapidly during the early stage of postnatal development and, as for the csa, it slowed thereafter. Peak level of myelination within the optic nerve, which corresponded with the age when the maximum number of myelinated nerve fibres, i.e. 94213 +/- 1799 (S.E.M.) was measured, occurred at the 16th week of postnatal life. The earliest myelinated nerve fibres seen were predominantly large in diameter, but with increasing age, fibres of smaller diameter dominated the myelinated nerve fibre spectrum in the nerve. The highest mean myelinated nerve fibre density was observed in mice at the age of peak myelination.

Morphometric analysis of myelinated fibre composition in the optic nerve of adult C57BL and CBA strain mice and (C57BL x CBA) F1 hybrid: a comparison of interstrain variation.

In a study involving 50 optic nerves isolated from 3 different strains of adult male mice, C57BL, CBA and (C57BL x CBA) F1 hybrids, and from adult female CBA strain mice, we observed that the mouse had a lower mean total myelinated nerve fibre count than other mammals such as the rat, cat, rabbit, monkey and man where similar information was available from the literature. The nerve fibre spectrum, however, which mostly consisted of small diameter fibres, was similar to the distribution seen in these other species. The largest myelinated nerve fibres observed in any of the strains of mice investigated had a diameter of not more than 1.92 microns. The C57BL optic nerve had the largest population of large diameter fibres, while the F1 had the largest population of small diameter fibres. In all the strains of mice investigated, the distribution of nerve fibres was unimodal, with a modal diameter of 0.48 microns. The mean nerve fibre diameter was 0.62 +/- 0.02 microns (S.E.M.), 0.57 +/- 0.03 microns and 0.55 +/- 0.01 microns for C57BL, F1 and CBA, respectively. The F1 had the lowest population of fibres around the modal diameter. The myelinated nerve fibres were most densely packed in the CBA strain of mice, whereas the C57BL was the least densely populated. There was a significant interstrain difference in the parameters measured between the 3 strains of mice studied, whereas there was no significant intrastrain difference.

Morphometric study of the optic nerve of adult normal mice and mice heterozygous for the Small eye mutation (Sey/+).

The Small eye (Sey) gene, which has been mapped to chromosome 2 in the mouse, is known to cause variable malformations of the eye and nose. The effect of the gene in the heterozygous state is mainly on the eye. A combined electron microscopy and morphometric analysis of the optic nerve in adult littermates with a normal (+/+) and heterozygous mutant (Sey/+) genotype was carried out. The optic nerve could be dissected from the posterior pole of the eyeball to the optic chiasma in all the mice examined. The results of morphometric analyses carried out in this study show that the Sey gene indirectly affects the normal morphogenesis of the optic nerve in the heterozygous mutant Sey male mouse to a significant degree compared with its male normal littermate. The heterozygous mutant Sey female mouse is also affected, but not significantly so when compared with its normal female littermate. The mean nerve cross-sectional area and mean nerve fibre counts for the Sey strain are lower than those observed in other strains of mice that have been studied. The nerve fibre densities and the spectrum of nerve fibre sizes encountered are, however, similar to those seen in other strains of mice. We believe that the findings indicate that the smaller mean nerve fibre counts observed in the heterozygous mutant (Sey/+) mice compared to their normal (+/+) siblings is unlikely to have resulted from primary retinal dysgenesis, but is a consequence of the reduced size of their neural retina, and total retinal ganglion cell population.