A headcount: K-P’s prisons crowded beyond capacity

Data submitted to K-P Assembly shows prisons are packed with over 1,400 extra inmates

PESHAWAR: Prisons in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are overcrowded with 9,503 inmates, a figure well above the capacity the province’s 22 prisons can hold – 8,091. At the moment, 1,400 prisoners over official capacity are incarcerated in various jails burdening the existing set-up.

According to data submitted by the prisons department to the K-P Assembly in response to a query from JUI-F lawmaker Najma Shaheen, the overall capacity for male and female inmates is 7,793 and 298 respectively in four central prisons, 10 district jails, four sub-jails and as many judicial lock-ups.

However, there are currently 9,320 male and 183 female inmates in prisons across K-P.



The numbers of prisoners in Swat and Abbottabad district jails could not be submitted as the former is vacated for repairs while the latter is under construction.

The data shows that there are no female inmates in some of the prisons, including those in Nowshera, Upper Dir and Lakki Marwat.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2015.