PRISONERS are also human and have a certain dignity which is provided by our Constitution: thus spoke the Chief Justice of Pakistan at a workshop on prisoners’ vulnerability some time ago.

“Inhumane treatment is meted out to prisoners with the view that they had committed heinous crimes and deserved no pity,” he remarked, adding that “prisoners should be provided with an environment to make them more productive and help them contribute to society.”

It can be said without any fear of contradiction that prison reforms will remain an elusive dream unless we reform the police. By this I mean the mindset that sends people to prisons suffers from some fundamental flaws.

The flaws are many but a few glaring ones are as follows: first, police arrest the suspects, detain culprits or curtail the liberties of citizens without obtaining substantial evidence; generally, they are arrested first and investigated later.

Second, the police are responsible for promoting a culture of lies and vendetta when registering engineered first information reports, based mostly on false ocular testimony; complainants often implicate innocent persons with a view to settling personal scores based on ulterior motives.

Thus the foundation of a criminal case is raised like a house on sand that cannot withstand the wind of judicial scrutiny. Collective failure of the police leadership from supervisory to command levels is too obvious.

The police culture is divided into moralists who consider criminals as evil beings who deserve to be eliminated. A small minority of legal professionals, espousing the rule of law and due process, try to swim against the tide.

The debate on prison reforms cannot be pursued in isolation. Along with the police, the prosecutors, lawyers, judges and all stakeholders in the criminal justice system must create a balance between retribution and reformation; between rights and the plight of victims, and a fair and just punishment for the perpetrators.

The whole ethos of crime and punishment should focus on eliminating the crime rather than the criminal.

The prison system in Pakistan is currently overcrowded, understaffed and under-funded.

In the country’s 102 prisons, approximately 85,000 people are incarcerated against a capacity of 45,000. A particular cause for concern is the exceptionally high level of undertrial prisoners who comprise nearly 68pc of the total prison population.

Furthermore, programmes aimed at prisoner rehabilitation are inadequate. Some education and skills training is provided by foreign funded or affiliate NGOs which is very inadequate for the needs of often illiterate prisoners.

This trend is exacerbated by the fact that undertrial prisoners, who constitute the majority, are either excluded or not considered a priority for such programmes.

Moreover, legislation governing the management of prisons, including the 1894 Prison Act and the Prison Rules of 1978, is outdated and not in line with the requirements of UN Standard Minimum Rules on the treatment of prisoners. This reflects a prison management ethos centred on security and control rather than rehabilitation.

The number of prison staff is insufficient, and their lack of training has led to reliance on selected prisoners (mostly convicts) to contribute to prison management with regard to supervision and maintenance of discipline.

The supervision of offenders released on parole or placed on probation is the responsibility of the reclamation and probation directorates.

There is a severe shortage of parole and probation officers, with only 93 responsible countrywide for around 11,000 offenders. With such limited capacity, the supervision and care of juvenile offenders placed under their custody suffers from total neglect.

The external oversight of prisons is undertaken by the judiciary. The district and sessions judges are required to visit prisons every month to release prisoners eligible for bail or probation.

Since the adoption of the 2009 National Judicial Policy, judges have increased the frequency of visits to prisons but the impact on the size of the prison population has been minimal, and large numbers of undertrial prisoners continue to suffer on account of delays in trials and lack of bail grants.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is assisting the federal and provincial governments to improve the criminal justice system and the processes that implement justice, including law enforcement, prosecution and prison services.

A model prison act along with new prison rules in two volumes has been prepared to provide a framework of core standards and operational principles for the prison system.

The UNODC has also developed two documents to support prison monitoring. Both manuals include a checklist to support monitoring efforts.

Similarly, training modules have been developed for the supervisory and operational level prison staff. Attention is also being given to prisoners with special needs and to improving services for female prisoners.

While the UNODC is trying to assist in implementing the national judicial policy framework in partnership with all relevant stakeholders, it is strongly recommended that a quadrilateral dialogue take place between the judiciary, police, prosecution and the prison officials to improve criminal justice administered to prisoners.

I hope it is realised that one can only enjoy liberty oneself if one is willing to give it to others.

The writer is UNODC adviser on rule of law and criminal justice.