Most child inmates still under trial

Only 71 Of 544 juvenile prisoners in Punjab serving sentence

LAHORE:

There are 544 juvenile prisoners in 42 jails across Punjab, including teenage girls.

Cases against 464 juvenile inmate are pending, while 71 children have been sentenced. Trials of all the incarcerated girls are still being heard. According to official data, Faisalabad Central Jail has the highest number of 74 children, followed by 70 in Bahawalpur District Jail, 69 in Lahore District Jail, 64 in Rawalpindi Central Jail and 45 in Gujranwala Central Jail.

The are 12 child prisoners in Kasur District Jail, 24 Sheikhupura, five in Sialkot, two each in Narowal and Attock, 17 in Okara, seven in Vehari, eight each in Gujrat and Jhang, 12 in Mandi Bahauddin, four each in Toba Tek Singh and Rahim Yar Khan, five in Sargodha, three each in Shahpur, Bhakkar, Jhelum and Layyah, 13 in Hafizabad, six in Lodhran, 19 in in Dera Ghazi Khan, 22 in Muzaffargarh and nine in Rajanpur District Jail.

Another 16 juvenile inmates are housed in Multan Central Jail, seven in Mianwali, three in Sahiwal Central Jail and four in Chakwal Sub Jail. According to jail sources, most of the juvenile inmates in prison on charges of drugs, kidnapping, theft and murder. There are separate barracks for juvenile prisoners. There is also a separate children’s jail in Bahawalpur with 70 inmates.

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Speaking to The Express Tribune, Punjab Prisons Inspector General Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig said that in addition to training with the help of the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) and other institutions, the inmates are trained as carpenter, computer operator and other skilled professionals. He said a number of NGOs were also working with the prisons department for the welfare of the children. Courses have been arranged for inmate girls, including fashion designing.

In the last five years, handicrafts made by prisoners in Punjab have been sold for more than Rs80 million. More than 21,000 prisoners earned Rs87.6 million. The prisoners made 18 types of items that were sold in markets. The prisoners made woollen rugs, blankets, boxes, lockers, furniture and other items. They made the highest profit of over Rs20 million through textile products. The IG said it had also been decided that arrangements will be made to ensure weekly telephone contact of poor juvenile prisoners with their families free of charge.

Two contact numbers will be noted from the family of each prisoner for the purpose. Baig has ordered collection of the data on call expenses in all jails for submission to the finance department by a sub committee with a summary for approval for arranging the free calls. According to Child Protection Bureau Chairperson Sarah Ahmed, children under the age of seven may stay with their mothers in prisons as per the law. Older children are either sent to relatives or the Child Protection Bureau takes them into custody on court orders and raises them until adulthood or their parents’ release.

Prison superintendents inform the bureau of the details of such children after which they are taken into custody. “We try to give special attention to such children so that when they grow up, they do not suffer from any feeling of deprivation.” A lawyer specialising in children’s cases, Khawar Farooq, said the first Juvenile Justice Ordinance came in 2001 and lasted until 2018, when the Juvenile Justice System Act was introduced. The term of imprisonment for minor offences is three years, serious crimes up to seven years and most serious, including murder and attempted murder, 10 years.

A committee comprising a lawyer, a district prosecutor and a judge oversees the arrest of juvenile suspects. The arrested children are transferred to Borstal institutions in which only children are kept with separate cells for boys and girls. Rehabilitation centres have also been set up in jail. Under The CrPC, if a pregnant woman is sentenced, she is kept in a separate cell until the child grows to two years old.