ABSTRACT
Recently, an increasing number of children below the age of 18 years in Nigeria have been adjudged delinquents for involvement in criminal and anti-social activities. Only males among the children have been kept in borstal institutions for rehabilitation purposes. However, the controversy over the treatment of female juveniles kept in prisons/correctional institutions/remand homes without any form of rehabilitation has not received the much-needed scholarly attention. Research is so far yet to capture the experiences of female juveniles in the institutions as they are becoming hardened criminals. The lack of rehabilitative opportunity for female juveniles, like their male counterparts at the borstal institutions, and their lived experiences in prisons/correctional institutions/remand homes stimulate the study. Using qualitative methodology, this chapter examines the problems inherent in widening the gender gap in Nigeria’s borstal institutions. It engages with the experiences of female juveniles in the institutions, which have led to their emergence as active agents in the perpetration of crimes in Nigeria. The chapter reveals the discriminatory stand of the operation of borstal institutions and how this discrepancy adversely affects young female offenders. It concludes by proffering recommendations for the establishment of properly funded borstal institutions to accommodate young female offenders in Nigeria.
