One-time offenders: City police to focus on rehabilitation
Condition of lockups to be improved, officers to receive training.
ISLAMABAD:
In a bid to save one-time offenders from becoming habitual criminals, the city police have started improving the condition of lockups in all police stations.
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Tahir Alam Khan said, “The city police are taking practical steps to protect suspects in police lockups from becoming criminals and to enable them to merge back easily into the society.”
Khan said most of the suspects who end up in police station lockups are one-time offenders or suspected of committing crimes. “The adverse conditions in police lockups are what turn these people into criminals.”
The focus will be on rehabilitation of these individuals, he added. Khan said that renovations in police lockups are underway, under which floors and walls are also being tiled. The suspects being held in police stations have already been provided new blankets for winter, he said. Besides the material uplift of lockups, special attention is being given to protection of basic human rights of prisoners.
The SSP said that emphasis of this reform program is primarily on human right issues and Human Rights Officers appointed at the police stations will also create awareness among people about their rights in policing affairs.
Khan said that conditions of the lockups at Crime Investigation Agency and a few other police stations have already been improved. The inmates are being provided with facilities and better living conditions.
However, sources said that the capital police will be unable to achieve its goals with its current budget, most of which is consumed in salaries.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2010.
In a bid to save one-time offenders from becoming habitual criminals, the city police have started improving the condition of lockups in all police stations.
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Tahir Alam Khan said, “The city police are taking practical steps to protect suspects in police lockups from becoming criminals and to enable them to merge back easily into the society.”
Khan said most of the suspects who end up in police station lockups are one-time offenders or suspected of committing crimes. “The adverse conditions in police lockups are what turn these people into criminals.”
The focus will be on rehabilitation of these individuals, he added. Khan said that renovations in police lockups are underway, under which floors and walls are also being tiled. The suspects being held in police stations have already been provided new blankets for winter, he said. Besides the material uplift of lockups, special attention is being given to protection of basic human rights of prisoners.
The SSP said that emphasis of this reform program is primarily on human right issues and Human Rights Officers appointed at the police stations will also create awareness among people about their rights in policing affairs.
Khan said that conditions of the lockups at Crime Investigation Agency and a few other police stations have already been improved. The inmates are being provided with facilities and better living conditions.
However, sources said that the capital police will be unable to achieve its goals with its current budget, most of which is consumed in salaries.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2010.