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FOR YOUR INFORMATION

The prisoners do have rights
ON 17 September 2019, a special report by The Daily Star revealed the deplorable condition of our prisoners across the countiy. The title of the report is self-explanatory: "9 prison doctors for 90,000 inmates"! Believe it or not, over 23 prisoners are dying every month, amid a shortage of doctors, nurses, and ambulances, and poor medical facilities in 68 prisons of the countiy. Moreover, 60 of the prisons have no doaors at all. Instead of doaors, these prisons only have nurses or pharmacists taking care of the prisoners. For years, the prison authorities have been requesting the Home Ministry to fill the 141 vacant doctor's posts in prisons. Due to the lack of adequate number of doctors and health-care services, sick and seriously ill prisoners are often taken to hospitals at the very last moment.
According to the report, at least 188 prisoners died due to illness in the eight months of this year. Last year, 316 prisoners died - an average of 26 inmates each month. The faa remains very clear that the prisoners lead a sub-human standard of life. The status of prisoner can, in no way, be grounds for the deprivation of their basic human rights. We must acknowledge that the prisoners - conviaed or awaiting verdia - are also entitled to certain basic rights like others.
Historically, States have had a tendency to deprive the prisoners from basic rights and subjea them to undue hardships. The experience of inhumane treatment associated with stigmatisation and sufferings has been a common phenomenon for many prisoners. Heeding the vulnerability of prisoners at the hands of the State, the UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders adopted the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMRTP) in 1955. Subsequently, the Rules were revised on 17 December 2015 to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, who spent so many years of his life in prison. Let us now see what sorts of rights, specially the right to health-care services, are provided for the
prisoners under the UN SMRTP.
According to Rule 24.1 of the UN SMRTP, the State is responsible for maintaining healthcare services for the prisoners. Irrespeaive of legal status, prisoners are entitled to access necessary healthcare services free of charge. Furthermore, healthcare services are to be organised in a way that ensures continuity of treatment and care, including for HIV, tuberculosis and other infeaious diseases.
Rule 25 requires every prison to have in place a healthcare service tasked with evaluating, promoting, proteaing and improving the physical and mental health of prisoners, paying particular attention to prisoners with special medical needs or with health issues that hamper their rehabilitation. Additionally, the healthcare services are to be consisted of an interdisciplinary team with sufficient qualified personnel acting in full clinical independence and the team must encompass sufficient expertise in psychology and psychiatry.
Rule 27 provides that all prison authority is needed to ensure prompt access to medical attention for the prisoners in urgent cases. The authority is also dutybound to transfer the prisoners, who require specialised treatment or surgery, to specialised institutions or to civil hospitals. All sorts of clinical decisions are to be taken by the responsible healthcare professionals only.
Rule 28 specially provides for the treatment of women prisoners and their new-born children. According to the provision, the prison authority needs
to arrange a special accommodation for all necessary prenatal and postnatal care and treatment in women's prisons. Arrangements are to be made wherever praaicable for children to be bom in a hospital outside the prison. The faa that a child is bom in prison is prohibited from being mentioned in the birth certificate.
According to Rule 30, a physician or other qualified health-care professionals are required to see, talk with and examine every prisoner as soon as possible following his or her admission and thereafter as necessary. During this activity, the physician needs to extend his or her special attention in identifying healthcare needs and taking all necessary measures for treatment.
Rule 31 requires the physician or, where applicable, other qualified healthcare professionals to have daily access to all sick prisoners, all prisoners who complain of physical or mental health issues or injury and any prisoner to whom their attention is specially direaed. All medical examinations are to be undertaken in full confidentiality.
According to Rule 33, the physician has a duty to report to the prison direaor whenever he or she considers that a prisoner's physical or mental health has been or will be injuriously affeaed by continued imprisonment or by any condition of imprisonment. Linder Rule 35, the prison direaor is required to take into consideration that report and take immediate steps to give effea to the advice and the recommendations in the report.
Bangladesh is a State that promises to defend human rights for all, and hence, it cannot ignore the international mandate and requirements for proper treatment of its prison population. As the healthcare services in prisons are evidently poor and sub-standard, the government must immediately and seriously address the issue of health-care of the prisoners and take effeaive measures as per the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
FROM LAW DESK.