Plight of jail inmates

Despite provision of medical check-ups & a balanced diet, jail authorities are often negligent about inmates’ health

The recent suicide of a teenager in Attock Jail allegedly owing to mental stress, gives yet another clear signal for an immediate overhaul of the system of corrections. The welfare of those in jails is often the last thing on minds of those in authority and the general public, as criminals are on the wrong side of our moral consciousness. Indeed, punishing convicts serves an important social purpose as it helps the erring individual to reform and protects society from crime. But how much and what kind of punishment is needed? Jail inmates have known to become punching bags in the hands of jailers, mistreated on the slightest of pretexts and humiliated for making requests. Despite the legal provision of regular medical check-ups and a balanced diet, jail authorities are often negligent about inmates’ health. In a society where mental disorders are still not acknowledged as problems deserving serious medical attention, soliciting psychologists and psychiatrists for criminals and convicts is a far cry.

Maximum limits of punishment are often crossed, with many inmates suffering in the form of psychological disorders, disease and a lost sense of self-respect. Overcrowded jails, lack of sanitation facilities, long hours of loneliness in poorly ventilated cells and poor treatment are enough to drive a grown man to madness, let alone a teenager. Add to this, a justice machinery that is creaking under the weight of unattended case files. With a legal system ridden by delays and corruption, it often takes many years for punishments to be decided. Even under-trial prisoners end up spending long periods just waiting for their trials to complete and in some cases have spent more time in jail then their maximum prison sentence if they had been convicted. The easiest solution to these miseries is but one: the law ministry, in collaboration with some departments of the interior ministry, should assign some staff for regular scrutiny of jails, which holds station and jail personnel responsible for any human rights abuses that take place.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2014.

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