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Reforms needed more than jails

Inmates 70,000, capacity 28,000; many without committing offence

Staff Correspondent
A good number of people are in jails without committing any offence while many are under trial, Law Minister Shaflque Ahmed yesterday said while reasoning out the overcrowding in the country's prisons.
He argued that taking legal steps and constructing more prisons are not enough to resolve the issue, rather the authorities concerned should reform the prison management and amend the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
He made the remarks at the first day of an international conference titled “Locked up and forgotten" at Police Staff College in the city's Mirpur. The Ministry of Home Affairs and German Technical Cooperation hosted the two-day long conference with the support of Bangladesh Legal Aid and ServicesTYust, Brae and Madaripur Legal Aid Associate.
The home ministry and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) are now jointly conducting a project—Improvement of the real situation of overcrowding in prisons in Bangladesh.
Inspector General of Police (prison) Brig Gen Ashraful Islam said that over 70,000 inmates are in 67 prisons against their capacity of only 28,000.
Some prisons are suffering more than others. For example, Narayanganj prison holds over 1,700 prisoners whereas it was designed for only200.
Shafique said, “The jail authorities should be very careful while receiving inmates”.
Explaining his comment, he said the authorities should regularly examine who are imprisoned, who are released and who have been in jails for years without any legal proceedings.
Law enforces often hide the age of children, implicate them in cases and send them to jail through the court, he added.
Supporting Shafique, Home Minister Sahara Khatun said it is necessary to introduce a system that can stop such lapses from happening in the first place.
The sponsors of the project have so far examined three prisons and identified 700 prisoners who don't have any case or particular charges against them.
They will find out such cases in other jails also, the home minister added.
Kiran Bedi, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee, and internationally renowned prison reformer from India, in
her keynote speech shared her experience of being in-charge oflndia'sTiharJail.
She spoke of a three-C (collective approach, corrective process and communitybased effort) model, which she developed and implemented in the jail.
She said the jail authorities, law enforcers, prosecution and NGO should work collectively to improve the prison management.
Contributing to the corrective process, prison authorities should consider prisoners' mental, physical and spiritual condition.
In community-based approach, the authorities should divide prisoners into different communities based on their profession and then conduct several activities like teaching, providing medical treatment, etc with the help of the community members, she added.
Real development occurs in a prison when the prison authorities think that the prison is not only a place for punishment but also a place for correcting inmates.
She also mentioned that she had made the Tihar prison a correction centre and the inmates capable of earning a living upon release.
Holger Michael, ambassador federal republic of Germany, and Abdus Sobhan Sikder, among others, spoke at the function while participants from different countries attended the conference.