Section 347 Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) Lagos

Section 347 Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, as amended in 2021, is about Rules Governing Community Service. It provides as follows:

(1) A person convicted of an offence triable summarily may be ordered by the
court to render community service in lieu of sentence or fine.

(2) The court, in exercising its power under subsection (1) of this section shall
consider the need to —
(a) decongest the correctional facilities and institutions;

(b) rehabilitate and reintegrate convicted persons by making
them undergo productive work; and

(c) avoid mixing persons convicted of simple offences with persons
convicted of serious offences.

(3) The Community Service Order shall contain such requirements as the
court may consider necessary for effective supervision and rehabilitation
of the offender, including that the offender enrolls for the State Government vocational training or skills acquisition program.

(4) A Community Service Order shall be in the nature of –
(a) environmental sanitation;
(b) assisting in the care of children and the elderly in Government
approved homes;

(c) any other type of service which in the opinion of the court would
have a beneficial and salutary effect on the character of the offender:
(i) the community service officer and the person against whom the order is made
shall enter into a written agreement speci-fying the number of hours of service that
would be rendered on a daily or weekly basis;

(ii) the written agreement referred to in subsection (4) (c) (i) of this section shall be filed in the court’s registry by the community service officer;

(iii) where the person against whom the order is made
refuses or defaults to enter into the written agreement or where the person breaches the terms of the agreement on more than three (3) occasions without any lawful
justification or excuse, the court on the application of the community service officer shall issue a bench warrant for the arrest of such person;

(iv) the person against whom the order was made shall
bear the burden of show-ing any lawful or valid excuse justifying
or excu-sing the breach of the written agreement, in which case the court may permit the continuation of the community service order;

(v) the court, if satisfied that the person against whom the order was made has no lawful or valid excuse, shall impose custodial sentence or fine having regard to the punishment prescribed for the offence to which the person was charged and the length of community service already performed.

(5) A community service officer shall be appointed in each Magisterial District
in the State by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice after consultation
with the Commissioner charged with the responsibility for social development.

(6) Nothing in this Law shall preclude the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice and the court from the use of diversionary and restorative measures.

(7) The enforcement measure prescribed under subsection (6) of this section shall be carried out through the Community Service Office and any relevant department within the Ministry of Justice.