Jails and coronavirus

Prisoners too should be provided with every possible protection from the deadly virus

The fact that prisons in Pakistan are overcrowded makes inmates highly vulnerable to the dreaded coronavirus. According to one estimate, around 77,000 prisoners are lodged in the country’s jails against the authorised capacity of 57,742 inmates. There are 98 prisons in the country. Prisons in all four provinces are bursting at the seams. This situation makes social distancing nearly impossible, which is one of the few protections from coronavirus. The elderly and the infirm are more at risk of contracting the virus. There are 1,500 prisoners above 60 years of age.

Taking notice of the existing situation, the federal ombudsman has told the chief secretaries, home secretaries, IG prisons of the provinces and other relevant officials to take steps to protect prisoners from the deadly virus. If such steps are not taken, jails will likely become epicentres of the virus. So far one prisoner lodged in Camp Jail Lahore has been infected with coronavirus, and shifted to a quarantine centre. He was arrested in Italy where, with more than 80,000 cases of infection and more than 8,000 deaths, the situation is simply not under control. After his deportation to Pakistan, he was lodged in an overcrowded prison, and was transferred to several barracks within the jail, so it becomes necessary to medically examine all those who had closely interacted with him.

According to a report submitted to the Supreme Court in November last year, the number of under-trial prisoners in Pakistan’s jails exceeds that of convicts. And in order to reduce congestion in prisons, especially in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, 829 and 408 under trial prisoners have been released on the directives of the honourable chief justices of the Sindh High Court and the Islamabad High Court respectively. Similar directives have been passed by the high courts in Balochistan, Lahore and Peshawar. This is indeed a commendable step. Prisoners, like every human being, needs to be treated with compassion. Equally vulnerable to the deadly disease, they too should be provided with every possible protection from the deadly virus, and get treatment facilities like anyone else.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2020.

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