Jails bursting at seams with twice the population

Jails accommodating as many inmates as six times it capacity

KARACHI:

Prisons across Sindh, especially in the metropolitan city of Karachi, are overcrowded as they are housing 10,000 more prisoners than their total capacity of 13,500, according to official figures. There are 33 prisons across Sindh, but 26 are operational. Of these, seven are central jails while the rest are district, women and juvenile prisons. These jails can accommodate a total of 13,500 prisoners, but currently they are housing more than 23,500 inmates. Breakdown shows that 18,000 of them are under-trail prisoners (UTPs), while a little over 4,500 are convicts who are serving their jail terms.

In Karachi, District Jail Malir has a capacity to accommodate 1,800 prisoners, but it is currently housing nearly 7,000 inmates - more than six times its capacity. Similarly, there are more than 6,000 prisoners in Central Jail Karachi against its capacity of 2,400. Central Jail Karachi is one of the oldest in the province which was built in 1899.

Hyderabad Central Jail, which was set up in 1894, has more than 2,300 inmates against its capacity of 1,500 inmates. District Jail Shaheed Benazirabad, which has a capacity to hold 100 prisoners, is currently housing 300 inmates. Badin and Shikarpur jails can accommodate 250 prisoners, but their current population has exceeded 500.The situation in other district jails is no different.

There are three women’s jails, one each in Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur. They can accommodate 420 prisoners, but currently their population is 486. Of these, 65 women are convicts serving their sentences, while 421 are UTPs. Karachi’s women’s jail has 297 inmates against its capacity of 250.

There are 440 prisoners in the juvenile prisons of Sindh, of which only 22 are convicts. Karachi’s Youth Offender Industrial School (Juvenile Jail) is currently housing 385 prisoners against its capacity of 350.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2022.