Funke’s holistic strategy involves providing legal support to inmates, creating economic opportunities for inmates through her Inside Out hubs, cooperating with government officials at different levels, starting with officers in the prisons and moving up to top government officials, and engaging… Read more
Funke’s holistic strategy involves providing legal support to inmates, creating economic opportunities for inmates through her Inside Out hubs, cooperating with government officials at different levels, starting with officers in the prisons and moving up to top government officials, and engaging the media to change society's perception of inmates, thereby creating opportunities for them to thrive in judgement-free environments.
In the area of providing legal support to inmates, Funke and her Hope Behind Bars team provide continuous legal support in the form of pro bono legal representation, pre-release, and parole hearings to reduce congestion in 12 prisons across Nigeria. Funke’s network of pro bono lawyers represent indigent inmates and use relevant law provisions to ensure that petty and simple cases are dealt with timeously. To date, Funke’s 200+ pro bono lawyers have logged over 1,000,000 hours providing legal advice and defending indigent inmates.
Backed by the need to create economic opportunities for inmates, Funke started a pilot project in a small prison facility, engaging female inmates in producing reusable face masks during the covid-19 pandemic. The success of this project inspired her to scale the initiative which led to the creation of inside-out centres in four prisons reaching 8,000 inmates. The inside out hubs equip women and young people who are finishing their time with the tools they need to succeed upon release. The hubs provide vocational and educational skills training, behavioural change support, income generation opportunities while incarcerated, and reintegration support in the form of resources and guidance to help inmates rebuild their lives outside. These Inside Out hubs operate in Abuja, Niger, Nasarawa and Kaduna states. Through the Inside Out hubs , Funke is also championing the “Adopt-an-Inmate” initiative which offers holistic support to inmates by having interested Nigerians volunteer to handhold the inmates who have passed through the Inside Out centres.
Funke’s strategic approach to collaboration with government entities is both insightful and impactful. By actively engaging with prison officers, she not only enhances their capabilities but also cultivates their support and endorsement for the programs benefiting inmates. As these officers become advocates, Funke’s team gains influential champions who amplify the positive impact of their work within correctional facilities. With the benefit of her legal background, Funke is taking advantage of the changes in government laws and working with relevant government agencies to include her restorative model in the new amendments to prison laws in Nigeria. Funke’s organisation provided the knowledge base for two key prison reform laws recently signed into effect by the government. The first is that the government changed the name of prison authority from Nigerian Prisons Service to National Correctional Service, reflecting the new direction from punitive to restorative justice. The second is that the federal government has created a distinction between federal prisons and state prisons, thereby granting states the autonomy and authority to run their own prisons. Interestingly, many of the states do not yet have the relevant laws to guide the operations of their state prisons, which has provided a good opportunity for Funke and her team to leverage their in-depth knowledge of the government laws and practices at the federal level to partner with the states to replicate and set up similar laws to guide their operations. Funke and her team organised a national stakeholders dialogue that brought together influential figures, including four State Prison Comptrollers, three Solicitor Generals, Members of the Federal Legislature, Professors (who were part of the think-tank on creating the national policy on state prisons), and other government actors, resulting in a policy document shared across states with the aim of determining the most suitable model to adopt for state-owned prisons.
In her work of engaging the media to create an enabling environment to reintegrate the prisoners and destigmatize them, Funke’s work and efforts extend beyond the prison walls to foster reintegration into society, preventing secondary offences and tackling the perception of inmates by society. She collaborates with multiple stakeholders, such as International Criminal Justice experts on her board, to secure funding from various sources like global citizens, Fund for Global Human Rights, and World Coalition Against Death Penalty to further highlight the plight of former inmates currently being stigmatised by society. So far, within the last two years, Funke has written more than 50 articles focusing on inmates’ rehabilitation, and prevention of repeat offending. To date, her articles have garnered over 400,000 impressions on social media and four major media appearances on global news outlets such as BBC, which has further increased society’s understanding of the issues Funke is tackling.
Funke is currently in 12 states and working on spreading to more states in Nigeria by leveraging her partnership with the Nigerian Bar Association and the International Federation of Women Lawyers.
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