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