Life in jail

Prisoners should be awarded punishment based on the crime they committed and not the amount of money they produced.


Editorial July 02, 2014
Life in jail

It comes as no surprise that the quality of life prisoners lead in Pakistani jails depends on the amount of money they are able to provide the jailers. The fact that this procedure is highly organised and rampant shows that the culture of bribery has become truly institutionalised.

According to a news report, when the police take suspects to jails they ask them the amount of money they are willing to offer. The more you pay, the better will be the quality of your life in jail. For example, those inmates who have paid a lot of cash are able to choose which barracks they want to live in, and those who cannot afford these hefty payments are in for some gruelling years inside the jail. Since a majority of prisoners in Pakistani jails are under trial, the bribes can also help you get an early trial, which means the courts will hear your case faster and, if found innocent, you can be free again. We need to reform our prisons to make sure the suspects caught by the police are able to go on trial promptly and subsequently convicted. Otherwise, the ongoing operation will be short-lived and the hardened criminals caught will be able to pay their way out of the prisons in no time.

Therefore, the problem needs to be tackled at all levels to make sure prisoners are awarded punishment and treatment based on the crime they committed and not the amount of money they produced. We need honest officials at high-ranking posts in the police department so they can start fixing the problem from top to bottom. Exemplary punishments must be awarded to jailers taking bribes so that their junior officers are also prevented from becoming corrupt. Moreover, we need the courts to decide cases quickly and clear all backlog so that the existing burden on prisons is reduced. The time that prisoners spend waiting for trial is when the police are able to bargain bribes so we must ensure that under-trial prisoners are either convicted or released as soon as possible.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2014.

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COMMENTS (2)

anonymous | 9 years ago | Reply

good research.

Aftab Tunio | 10 years ago | Reply

According my heard knowledge it is 100 true that the life of prisoners is too much tough but the prisoners who are innocent are getting this award other wise the prisoner who is criminal he know has too pay for make some setting. I have listened from someone that when police caught suspects they take money for police van's petrol and then money for send to jail and when a suspects inter into jail at the door the police men take money other wise give him punishment and send him to work department ( It is department where prisoners work like land crops, vegetables, bringing water for different barracks, sweeping), I listened about a 60 year old man caught by police and send them to jail and he had done 3 month labor work in jail due to not paying money to jailer and police men that was stand on door of jail and the cause was not big but he spent his 6 year in jail and finally after 6 year he had release from jail by proving that he is innocent and the cause was false. So this is our courts and judges. It must should be to run cause very fast and give punishment to criminal other wise release innocent without giving him punishment of spending lot of time in jail. It is very necessary that we finish corruption by education. Our system need lot of changes from up to down for which we are waiting

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