Overcrowding, unhygienic food, sexual harassment and violence and unsatisfactory medical care are the unending issues of prisoners across Pakistan
Source/Credit: Daily Times | Pakistan
By Sarmad Ali | June 27, 2015
After the bloody partition of India, two new countries emerged, namely Pakistan and India. Like various laws and systems, India and Pakistan inherited the same prison system from the British as a colonial legacy. The prison system was designed to detain freedom fighters and those who had raised their voices against British imperialism in India. Western society has a history of torture and public executions until the 17th century. It was characterised by legalised discrimination, violence, revenge and penitence during ancient and medieval times. Prison, as a place of punishment after conviction, is an 18th century construct. This is a relatively humanitarian alternative to the harsh and brutal penal methods of the dark ages.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s report, State of Human Rights in 2014, provides information about the current situation of the violent and notorious jails of Pakistan. The report also encapsulates extensive research, facts and figures relating to human rights, along with an overall view of the state of human rights in Pakistan. The chapter dealing with the jails of Pakistan is interesting because it shows how prisoners in different jails of Pakistan face a number of chronic issues, such as unhygienic food, sexual harassment, lack of a healthcare system, rampant torture, and overcrowding that had been encountered by prisoners in 2014. It is correct to say that reforming prison rules has never been seriously contemplated by any government, as these issues date far back in the history of Pakistan.
The Constitution of Pakistan contains a number of Articles that have special significance for prison administration, particularly regarding the treatment of prisoners. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 800 or so female prisoners faced harassment and a lack of proper healthcare in the different jails of Pakistan in the year 2014. The female prisoners in jails in the year 2014 faced sexual harassment and violence at the hands of the wardens. The UNODC report envisages that there was no gynaecologist available on call to attend to female prisoners in the jails of Pakistan. The report further says that female prisoners were found in critical condition, for instance, most of them were suffering from sleeping disorders, suicidal depression and other mental imbalances.
The report goes on to say that the government of Punjab released Rs one billion to the prison department for jails for the fiscal year 2014, in February 2014. The aim of the government was to improve the living conditions of inmates in jails and to address the issues of the medical care system, food hygiene, building new barracks and improving security inside jails; until then Rs 6,099 million had been spent on those issues. For the 2013-2014 financial year, Rs 819 million was spent out of the allocated Rs 1.09 billion to address the issues faced by the prisoners. However, Rs 271 million was sent to the government by the prison department as unspent. The prison authorities miserably failed to spend the full allocation on jails in order to improve the living standards and address the issues of prisoners.
In the prisons across Pakistan, except for those in Gilgit-Balistan, the population of inmates exceeded the sanctioned capacity. The noteworthy point, which has been highlighted in the report, is that in Punjab the number of prisoners was 130 percent of the capacity. Last year, a lawyer filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court concerning overcrowding in jails across Punjab. The Deputy Inspector General (DIG), on November 15, informed the court in response that six new jails would be made operational across Punjab to curtail the population of inmates in the current jails. The DIG said that high security jails in Layyah, Okara, Bhakkar, etc, had been completed, with fully equipped facilities and staff. The court demanded that the DIG release details of the 11 other new jails. To date, none of these jails have become functional. The announcement of the construction of new jails across Punjab was made in 2012 by the PML-N government, when a preliminary budget of Rs 400 million was released for the 10 new jails to be built across Punjab. The Prisons Minister, in the Punjab Assembly, said that cell phone jammers had been installed in 14 jails of Punjab and that jammers would be installed in the rest of the jails by the end of the 2013-2014 financial. Moreover, family rooms had been constructed in the jails of Multan and Faisalabad in 2014.
Overcrowding, unhygienic food, sexual harassment and violence and unsatisfactory medical care are the unending issues of prisoners across Pakistan. In 2014, the Prisons Minister noted that there were 80 HIV carriers and 30 Aids-affected prisoners in Punjab. Furthermore, he said that the standard of food in jails had improved as the cost of food had increased to Rs 80.90 per head. The report published by the HRCP highlighted that in 2013 and 2014 the situation of prisoners across Punjab was horrible and unsatisfactory and failed to see any improvement in food quality. The efforts of the government had no effect on prisoners across Punjab. Seventeen prisoners in District Jail, Swat died in the month of October after eating unhygienic food because of which two officers on duty were held liable and subsequently suspended..
In culmination, I submit that there is an urgent need to develop a reform policy for prisons across Punjab. I believe that there is no sign of improvement in the near future. The government of Punjab has to seriously take note of the living standards of prisoners in the jails of Punjab. The food quality, overcrowding and a proper and satisfactory medical care system in jails should be addressed while considering a reform policy for jails. I further contend that there is a need to provide free legal aid to those who are detained because of minor offences so that they are released in a timely fashion. Hardened criminals should be segregated from those who have committed minor offences. The normal practice of the sexual violence and harassment of women by wardens should also be a part of the reform policy. Women prisoners and juveniles should receive rehabilitation classes in jails, so that they become responsible citizens of Pakistan when released. Lastly, I contend that Pakistan should get rid of medieval forms of punishment and introduce non-penal social rehabilitation. The concept of jails in modern times seems to be inhumane and volatile. I request the DIG to seriously take up the matter of reforming jails across Pakistan, instead of merely making statements.
The writer is an advocate of the High Court. He can be reached at greenlaw123@hotmail.com
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/27-Jun-2015/prisons-in-pakistan
Read original post here: Prisons in Pakistan
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