“When I Take Drugs, I Don’t Care”: Insights into the Operational Dynamics of Male Violent Offenders in a Correctional Centre

• Author: Macpherson Uchenna Nnam,Gilbert Enyidah-Okey Ordu,Mary Juachi Eteng,Jonathan Akwagiobe Ukah,Christopher Chukwu Arua,Groupson-Paul Okechukwu,Cletus Onyema Obasi
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211022653
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211022653

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2022, Vol. 66(13-14) 1454 –1474

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211022653

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Article

“When I Take Drugs, I Don’t

Care”: Insights into the

Operational Dynamics of

Male Violent Offenders in a

Correctional Centre

Macpherson Uchenna Nnam1,

Gilbert Enyidah-Okey Ordu1, Mary Juachi Eteng1,

Jonathan Akwagiobe Ukah1, Christopher Chukwu Arua1,

Groupson-Paul Okechukwu1, and Cletus Onyema Obasi2

Abstract

This study investigated the operational dynamics of male violent offenders

incarcerated in Abakaliki custodial center, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey

research design was adopted and purposive technique used to recruit 260 inmates

charged with violent offenses. The data generated from structured questionnaire

were analyzed using Predictive Analytic Software (PAS), with ordinary least

regression, descriptive statistics and spearman rank order correlation techniques,

employed in testing the variables explored. Findings revealed that this population

use drugs to enhance criminal performance through being brutal; instilling fear in

victims to secure their total compliance and submission; and suppressing regret for

their criminal acts. Heroin, followed by, cocaine, cannabis, tramadol, and multiple

drug use, were commonly used drugs in the population surveyed, with their

offenses ranging from cultism, armed robbery, murder and burglary to kidnapping

and assault and battery. Gaining insights into the changing operational knowledge,

procedures and dynamics of violent offenders will (re)direct policy approach and

action that are capable of increasing public and custodial safety. It will also orient

1Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

2University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria

Corresponding Author:

Macpherson Uchenna Nnam, Department of Criminology and Security Studies, Alex Ekwueme Federal

University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, PMB 1010, Nigeria.

Email: icharilife@yahoo.com

1022653IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211022653International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyNnam et al.

research-article2021

Nnam et al. 1455

and direct practical prison reforms for successful rehabilitation and reintegration of

released inmates into the free world.

Keywords

custodial center, drugs, insights, violent offenders, operational dynamics

Introduction

Scholars and researchers have been searching for suitable pathways to understanding

the complexities of drug use and its direct or indirect association with crime and vio-

lence, with each researcher approaching the problem from their own unique perspec-

tives (e.g., Adayonfo & Akanni, 2019; Belenko & Spohn, 2015; Deitch et al., 2015;

Link & Hamilton, 2017; Mamman et al., 2014; Nnam et al., 2018; Nyameh et al.,

2013; Philips, 2012; Romm & Metzger, 2018). Difficulty in identifying the nature of

the relationship between drug use and crime—be it correlational or causal (i.e., does

drug use lead to crime, or does crime lead to drug use)—is one reason that the drug-

crime nexus is still contested in the social science literature, as evidenced by the large

volume of literature on the topic currently available (see Goldstein, 1985; Gottfredson

et al., 2008; Nelson & Nnam, 2020; Nnam et al., 2018, 2020a; Philips, 2012). The cur-

rent study is not actually trying to explore or measure these variables, as it were. While

building on them as a robust and related/relevant literature and theoretical constructs,

this study sets out to broaden human horizons on drug-violent crime scholarship by

elaborating on details of “using drugs to enhance criminal performance” as a subcat-

egory of the “crime leading to drug use and vice versa” hypotheses (see the sections

on Literature Review, Results and Discussion for details).

Like crime, the “drug problem” is universal. For instance, the United Nations

Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report revealed that drug use is not limited to

geographic boundaries, but rather is a universal problem (Atkinson et al., 2011).

Psychoactive drugs are common in many countries and their resultant abuse has been

reported as one of the major public health and social problems worldwide (Nelson &

Obot, 2019; Nnam, 2017a, 2017b; Obot, 2012; Otu, 2013; Room et al., 2010; UNODC,

2010, 2015, 2018a, 2018b, 2019). Furthermore, the dramatic increase in prison popu-

lation across the globe (see Country Policy and Information Note Nigeria: Prison

Conditions, 2016; Nnam, 2016; Walmsley, 2018; Wilson, 2010), with violent offend-

ers constituting a substantial number, has been a major concern to governments and

their criminal justice system, prison scholars and the public (Nnam, 2016; Wilson,

2010). In Nigeria, “the Port Harcourt prison for instance, built to accommodate 800

inmates, had over 4,000 inmates occupying its cells as at August 2019. Similarly,

Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, with the capacity to hold only 956 inmates held about

2,600 also as at August 2019. It becomes of little wonder then, why these prisons are

continuously described as ‘living hells’” (Ojeah, 2020, p. 2). Even the study area,

Abakaliki custodial center, has overstretched its carrying capacity of 387 population;

the institution has consistently housed over 1000 inmates in recent times (Field Survey/

Abakaliki Prison Recording Board, 2017, 2018, 2019).