This article examines the right to healthcare for mentally ill inmates in Nigerian correctional facilities, looking closely at the gap between what the law promises and what actually happens in practice. Mentally ill inmates are caught between two systems,
criminal justice and healthcare and are consistently let down by both. Despite the enactment of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019 and the Mental Health Act 2021, both important steps forward, this article argues that Nigerian law, as it stands and as it is currently applied, fails to properly protect the right to healthcare for this group of people. Drawing on the constitutional guarantee of human dignity under Section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, and drawing comparisons with the UN Nelson Mandela Rules and the South African constitutional framework, this article identifies serious gaps in Nigeria’s laws and institutions when it comes to mental healthcare in prisons. The article closes with specific recommendations for legislative and institutional reform, arguing that how Nigeria treats mentally ill inmates is ultimately a measure of its real commitment to human dignity and to a fairer criminal justice system.

Keywords: Mental health, Nigerian prisons, Right to Healthcare, Correctional Service Act 2019, Mental Health Act 2021, criminal justice reform