Bursting at the seams

Dealing with overcrowding in the country’s prisons is by no means a new problem, but it hasn’t been this bad in years as it is now. Jails are typically filled with more inmates than they are designed to hold. There appears no let-up in the disturbing trend where the prisons have been witnessing the inmate population steadily creep up. And a major contributor to this state of affairs is unsolved cases pending adjudication in courts, with under-trial prisoners put behind bars. A report by a commission constituted by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) only goes to confirm this. It says Bottom of Formthat an alarming number of prisoners who are languishing in jails across the four provinces have not been convicted and are thus a reason why prisons are bursting at the seams.

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari presented the report of the commission regarding jail reforms and the situation of prisoners to the IHC. It says under-trial prisoners constitute more than half of the prison population in all four provinces. An alarming 71 per cent of all prisoners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are unconvicted. The proportion is 70pc in Sindh, 55pc in Punjab and 59pc in Balochistan. Even though these prisoners have not yet been convicted of any offences they are languishing in prisons and contributing to overcrowding, says the report.

The report also sheds light on serious physical and mental ailments that the country’s prison population is suffering from. According to data provided by prison authorities in all four provinces which has been cited in the report, a total of 1,823 inmates are suffering from hepatitis, 425 have HIV, 173 tuberculosis, 594 mental illnesses and 2,192 are suffering from other ailments. We cannot but agree with the minister more when she suggests the inmates should be granted the right to work in prisons so that they can start their new lives upon release.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2020.

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