Category: Rehabilitation and Reintegration
HomeRehabilitation and Reintegration

Category: Rehabilitation and Reintegration

REJA LAUNCHES 1ST TRANSITIONAL SHELTER FOR FORMERLY INCARCERATED PERSONS IN NASARAWA STATE

Restorative Justice for Africa (REJA Initiative) is excited to unveil the first-ever Halfway Home and transitional shelter for formerly incarcerated individuals in Nasarawa State.

This groundbreaking initiative marks a major leap forward in reimagining justice in Nigeria, offering dignity, direction, and hope to formerly incarcerated persons who were unjustly detained or have no family or home to return to.

The facility, named “Restored Voices Shelter,” was officially launched on the 3rd of July 2025 at a ceremony in Ado, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State drawing key players from across the criminal justice sector including the Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, Hon. Justice Aisha Bashir-Aliyu ably represented by Mr. Yahaya Shafa, The Non-custodial Directorate of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Dr. Oluwatoyin Badejogbin, the Country Director of #ROLAC, Mr. Jacob Tsado, the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship International, Nigerian Chapter, Aisha Abdullahi Bubah, Executive Director of The Sunshine Series- Mind wellness, Barr. Ubose Olorunfemi, human rights enthusiast and Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Benin, Mr. Rafiu Adeniran Lawal, Executive Director of Building Blocks for Peace
Foundation, our distinguished board member, Mr. Israel Usman, Mr. David Babatunde from the Nigerian Correctional Service, Keffi, community members and a number of other officers from the Nigerian Correctional Service, Nassarawa State.

Another highlight of the occasion was the launch of a Model Practice Direction on Restorative Justice for Nigerian Courts, alongside a guided tour of the newly completed shelter.

The Restored Voices Shelter is a post-incarceration transition facility, designed to bridge the reintegration gap that plagues Nigeria’s criminal justice system. For years, REJA has provided critical legal aid and restorative justice interventions to indigent and wrongfully detained persons. But in the course of the work, there was a painful realisation; there was very little aftercare support for people re-entering society after incarceration. The Restored Voices Shelter is our answer to this problem, it is a safe, supportive space for transformation.

The Restored Voices Shelter is envisioned as a self-sustaining halfway home, led by formerly incarcerated individuals and tailored to provide temporary housing, psychosocial support, vocational training, and life-skills counselling.

The initiative is part of REJA’s broader mission to close the justice and inequality gap and reform Nigeria’s criminal justice system by tackling the root causes of injustice and repeat offending, particularly among indigent and wrongfully detained persons.

If you believe in second chances, true justice, and healing through community, we invite you to partner with us. Let’s restore voices and rewrite futures together.

Safe Period Project organised at the Special Correctional Centre for Girls-Idi-Araba

When persons are accused of committing offences, they are often secluded from the society and remanded in places where they are to serve out their sentences. These places are called “correctional centres”. The idea behind  correctional centres is to rehabilitate these individuals and equip them with the necessary skills and vocations to allow seamless re-entry into society. 

As an organization, we promote the use of rehabilitative and restorative measures in dealing with cases of criminal nature, to curb re-offending and promote criminal justice reforms. 

SAFE PERIOD PROJECT

The rehabilitative measures used by our organization Reja Initiative includes skills and vocational trainings such as our recently conducted ‘Safe Period Project’ at the Special Correctional Centre for Girls, Idi-Araba where the girls were trained on how to produce reusable sanitary pads for their personal use or sale. The Centre is located in Lagos State Nigeria and houses young girls below the age of 18 who are in conflict with the law. It was fulfilling for us to engage with the girls and to have met their needs.

The ‘Safe Period Project’ is an improvement of our 1st edition held in the female correctional centre Umuahia where over 300 women were trained. 


With more projects like this, we intend to build a system where returned inmates can be easily integrated into society. 

Myths and Facts about Restorative Justice

Myth 4: Restorative Justice is not suitable for all cases, it is only appropriate for minor offences.

Fact: Restorative Justice (RJ) has proven to be very appropriate for capital offences as it has been for minor offences. For minor offences, RJ has provided alternativs to custodian sentences and for capital offences, it has be used in conjunction with the mainstream Justice system to achieve great results.

Myths and Facts About Restorative Justice

Myth 2: Restorative justice is a get out of jail free card for the offender.

Fact: Restorative Justice (RJ) advocates for a healthy complement to and in certain cases of minor offences, an alternative to retributive justice. RJ does not do away with punishment, but advocates for restitution and repair which are punishments away from imprisonment in certain cases.