PAKISTAN’S jails are overflowing, yet there seems to be little evidence that the state has a comprehensive plan to address the issue of prison reform. Prisons across the country have far more inmates than they can house; for example, members of a Senate committee that visited Karachi’s central prison on Thursday discovered that 6,500 inmates were housed in the facility designed to accommodate 2,400. One statistic was particularly shocking: that only 1,000 of the prison’s inmates were actually convicts, with the rest being undertrial prisoners. This severe overcrowding creates multiple problems — a major issue being that those incarcerated for petty crimes are often in close proximity to hardened, violent criminals. As the HRCP noted in its 2015 annual report, Pakistan’s prisons have “served as potential breeding grounds for radicalisation, criminal activity and disease”. The Supreme Court has also highlighted the poor state of prisons on numerous occasions.

As per the requirements of modern criminal justice, jails should serve as correctional facilities along with being places of punishment. While the senators observed that some efforts have gone into introducing vocational training and art classes, the problem remains that these positive interventions can do little unless the issue of overcrowding is addressed. The lawmakers have called for building more prisons; this is of course the first step. Equally important is the fact that a large number of undertrial prisoners are housed in jails, which points to ineffectiveness of the justice system. Moreover, there needs to be separation of convicts or those awaiting trial for violent crime and terrorism, and the general prison population. Radicalisation within jails is a major concern, as there have been cases where high-profile militants have reportedly conducted their operations from within the confines of the penitentiary. There is also merit in calls to relocate prisons far from population centres for security purposes. In Karachi, where militants and murderers have attempted jailbreaks, there is a definite need to build a high-security facility far from thickly populated areas.

Published in Dawn September 24th, 2016