Prison reforms

Often we hear that government departments are understaffed and it is due to financial issues. This may be justifiable only to some extent but not entirely. Adviser to the Sindh CM on Prisons Aijaz Ali Jakhrani has admitted that the province’s jails need more staffers and the existing staff are underpaid. He says that understaffing is because recruitments were last made in 2013, and increase in salaries could not be made because of budgetary issues. The adviser has announced that a fresh recruitment process will start soon and the jail staff will be given raise to bring their salaries on a par with those of their counterparts in Punjab. This is welcome news for the increasing number of unemployed youth. Also, the increase in salaries will provide the much-needed relief to the jail staff who have been working without a raise for years.

According to Jakhrani, the amended prison law will be implemented soon. The new law, he says, authorises jail superintendents to grant parole to prisoners for 24 hours in emergency situations, including the marriage or death of a close relative. It also authorises IGs and DIGs to extend paroles. Formerly, only the home department could do this. Commendable initiatives have been taken under the new law, like: prisons have been renamed ‘correctional centres’ to act as reformatories for inmates; prisoners will be counselled to help them become productive members of society on completion of their sentence; more emphasis will be laid on reform and rehabilitation; and facilities for indoor games, libraries and other productive and recreational activities will be provided inside prisons.

We hope that all these measures would go a long way in making prisons places of reform, and help remove the perception among sceptics that ordinary wrong-doers become hardened criminals after spending time in jail.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2020.

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