ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has been informed that the Punjab government is seriously contemplating developing three new prisons in the province during the current financial year to reduce overcrowding of jails.

Submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the chief secretary, Punjab in a report said that with the financial outlay of Rs3.4 billion that had been earmarked already, these prisons would accommodate 2,768 inmates. At present the total designed capacity of 40 prisons in Punjab is around 30,331 inmates against their existing population of 47,674.

The report, filed by Additional Advocate General for Punjab Razzaq A. Mirza, will be taken up by a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on a suo motu case about condition of inmates due to overcrowding.

In addition, two new prisons in Lahore and Rawalpindi with a capacity of 4,000 inmates have been designed to reduce overcrowding by improving the living conditions of the prisoners.

The proposed action was suggested against the backdrop of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan’s finger-pointing towards failure of the authorities concerned on rectifying systemic failure that results in maladministration at the cost of prisoner sufferings in different jails of the country.

Total designed capacity of 40 prisons in the province is 30,331 inmates against their population of 47,674

To reduce the overcrowding in prisons, the report said, the Punjab government had undertaken construction of new jails and expansion in the designed capacity of the existing ones, entailing substantial outlay of development budget.

During the financial years 2014 to 2016, nine new prisons with accumulative designed capacity for 7,186 inmates have been constructed and made functional.

The report has also highlighted how the overcrowding of inmates in the jails has been reduced over the years.

It said the overcrowding was reduced in 2010 by 139 per cent, in 2011 by 148pc, in 2012 by 132pc, in 2013 by 126pc, in 2014 by 129pc, in 2015 by 84pc, in 2016 by 65pc and in 2017 by 57pc.

The report further stated that the Punjab government had exempted 31 prisons from loadshedding since independent electricity feeder, double source supply and dedicated electric supply lines have been secured. Similar efforts are under way to equip other prisons with adequate funds during 2016-17.

The provincial government has also installed cellular jammers in 28 prisons to end misuse of cell-phones by the inmates and to address consequential security concerns.

The Punjab government has also constructed 54 family rooms with an attached kitchen and washrooms each in the central jails at Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad where the convicts sentenced to a long-term imprisonment – exceeding five years – could stay with their spouses and children for three days after every quarter. The standing operating procedures for the family rooms are being finalised and the rooms will be operational shortly.

The provincial government is imparting formal and religious education to the inmates and since 2011, 23,556 prisoners have appeared in different examinations of them 8,343 have even passed examinations in both formal as well as informal education.

On this count 1,793 convicted inmates have been awarded remissions in their sentence.

Moreover the Punjab government has also established technical training centres at 15 different jails costing Rs223 million with the collaboration of the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority where 1,131 inmates in 14 different disciplines were getting technical trainings.

Since 2012 a total of 1,788 destitute inmates who lacked financial resources to pay the outstanding fines have been released from the prisons on payment of Rs53m by the government as well as philanthropic organisations.

Similarly, 403 inmates detained owing to non-payment of diyat, arsh or daman were also released from prisons on payment of Rs148m.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2017