US to fund state-of-the-art training academy for prisons police

Consul-general performs facility's groundbreaking at Hyderabad Central Jail


Our Correspondent July 06, 2018
US Consul-General Joanne Wagner with Sindh Inspector-General of Prisons Nusrat Hussain Manghan. PHOTO: APP

HYDERABAD: The groundbreaking ceremony for a United States (US) government-funded training academy for the prisons police was performed on Thursday at Central Jail Hyderabad.

The $1.5 million project, which will increase four-fold the training capacity at the jail to around 600 personnel at a time, will be completed by 2020.

"Corrections [imprisonment as punishment] are often the neglected leg of a three-legged stool," said US Consul-General Joanne Wagner, who performed the groundbreaking along with Sindh Inspector-General of Prisons Nusrat Hussain Manghan.

"Without police, prosecutors and prison officials working together, the system can't succeed," the consul-general said, adding that the US would support Sindh in all three areas. She also praised reforms introduced by the prisons department in the recent years.

According to Wagner, the new academy would help equip the prisons police with modern prison management techniques. It would also focus on promoting human rights and countering violent extremism.

Jails overcapacity by 22, 000 prisoners, SC told

The facility would provide training to all newly appointed employees of the department in addition to refresher courses to the existing staff. The diplomat recalled that the US had also funded the training of 77 officials of the prisons department since 2013.

The State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau began its partnership with the prisons department in 2014. The bureau is working in more than 90 countries to help the governments combat crime and corruption, counter drug-related crime, improve police institutions and promote laws and judicial systems that are fair and accountable.

The prisons IG explained that the facility would include classrooms, a library, computer lab, auditorium, barrack blocks, hostel block, guard rooms, firing range, parking sheds and living quarters. Besides Sindh, it would also train prison staff from Balochistan.

The US consul-general, later met Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor Tayyab Hussain and officials of the Government of Sindh Directorate-General of Health on her first trip outside Karachi.

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