LHC orders establishment of women's jails, prison reforms in Punjab

Lahore High Court also calls for psychiatric wards for prisoners

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LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh directed the authorities concerned to establish women's jails in Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi to protect the rights of female prisoners confined in men's prisons.

Disposing of a petition, the judge gave recommendations for the authorities to improve the Prisons Management System.

Justice Sheikh proposed that psychiatric wards or independent hospitals be established at the regional level, especially in Rawalpindi and Multan, to ensure the treatment and confinement of mentally ill prisoners.

The current practice is to transfer all the mentally ill prisoners from various jails to the Punjab Institute of Mental Health for treatment.

The detailed judgment called for revamping the jail industries to equip the inmates with essential skills to aid their rehabilitation and reintegration into the society by aligning the syllabus with the relevant institutions.

It was argued by the petitioners that the law of release on parole of prisoners with good conduct was misused by jail authorities and almost all such prisoners were kept as domestic workers at the residences of officers. This may hurt the self-esteem of prisoners.

In the circumstances, the procedure of release on parole may be simplified and such prisoners should be engaged in community service, industry and commercial institutions. This will make the prisoners productive members of the society and facilitate their rehabilitation.

Another proposal is that to help long-term prisoners reintegrate into the society, the prisons authority may establish an open prison with minimum security for confinement of the convicts in the last year of the sentence.

The prisons department was urged to introduce an Electronic Prisoner File Management System to ensure transparency and efficiency and digitalise all the prisoners' record with NADRA.

Digitalisation of court records, prisons and the prosecution and integration along with the option of trial through video link, if possible, was proposed to reduce delay.

The judgment noted that 3,200 prisoners belonging to the Islamabad Capital Territory were incarcerated in the Rawalpindi Central Jail. The construction of a prison at the capital may reduce congestion in the Rawalpindi jail.

In line with Rule 83 of the United Nation Standard Minimum Rules for treatment of the prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules), the Punjab Prisons Department should establish an external inspection mechanism to ensure accountability and transparency, it added.

The prison staff must be trained to deal with dangerous, psychologically disturbed, drug addict and death-row prisoners along with and those having a tendency to inflict self-harm.

The recommendations of the Parole Board may also include the nature of work of the prisoner assessed on the basis of qualification, skill and age. Then prisoners on parole may preferably be employed by an organisation, institution or industrial unit.

The judge stated that the Punjab Probation Service might develop a quantifiable mechanism to conduct need and risk assessment of the prisoners to be released on parole.

The Punjab government was urged to expedite the revamping of the Probation and Parole Service, including training of the probation officers, up-gradation and infrastructure.

The court directed that a quarterly progress report should be submitted to the monitoring judge of the prisons.

Justice Sheikh disposed of the petition filed by Rida Qazi as public interest litigation, seeking directions to the respondents to treat the prisoners of the Lahore District and Kot Lakhpat jails in accordance with the Jail Manual and shift to other prisoners those detained beyond the capacity of the premises.

Directions had also been sought to shift the prisoners needing psychiatric care to the Mental Hospital and addicts to drug rehabilitation centres.