Abstract Globally, prisons are established to deal with law breakers and offenders and as well deter prospective criminals. However, in developed societies, prison has been used as a reformative tool aimed at making the prisoner a reformed and better person at the end of his jail term. That actually cannot be said about the Nigerian prison which sees its inmates from the punitive prism. This study attempts to examine the means of making the Nigerian Prison reformative rather than punitive and thereby free the prisoner from the dilemma of derogation. The study relied on secondary sources of data and content analysis was employed as a tool of analysis. The study revealed the poor conditions of the Nigerian prisons and the need for urgent reforms. It equally uncovered that the call for the reform of the Nigerian prison service is a recurring phenomenon as successive governments have failed to do anything tangible in that direction. Similarly, it was discovered that Nigerian prisons are filled with people whose rights are often violated as over half of its inmates are awaiting trials and most have been waiting for their trials for years. Factually, the operations of Nigeria’s prisons fall short of the United Nations standard for the treatment of offenders. It therefore recommended the re-focusing of the Prison service towards the total reformation of inmates, adequate funding of the service as well as security of both the staff and inmates among others. This paper concludes that because of the appalling conditions of inmates, prisons in Nigeria are not performing their social functions well and must be made to do so. Key Words: Nigeria, Prisons, Punishment, Reforms..