KARACHI: Discussing methodologies to reintegrate young prisoners back into society and the role various stakeholders could play in this respect, participants in a consultation held on Tuesday called for upgrading prisons currently heavily over-crowded and functioning with limited resources and poor infrastructure.

Prisons, they said, were not fulfilling the role of ‘correctional facilities’ and offered few structural programmes for under-trial prisoners and women.

Organised by Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child (Sparc) in consultation with the Sindh Prisons Department, the event focused on a UNDP (United Nations Develo­pment Programme) project — Economic Rehabilitation and Reintegration Support to Young People in Prisons.

Highlighting the need for the project, Sparc executive director Sajjad Cheema said that the organisation would implement this project in collaboration with the prisons department.

“A holistic pilot programme would be launched with an aim to equip young prisoners in the age-group of 15 to 29 with tools that could help them rehabilitate and reintegrate in society once they are released,” he said, adding that the programme would cover the Malir prison, women’s prison and the adjoining Youthful Offenders Industrial School (YOIS).

He informed the audience that at present no specific programmes were available for youth in prisons, which was due to lack of specialised personnel with proper knowledge of the rights of young people and women.

On the social stigma associated with prison, Mr Cheema said this pressing subject had largely remained ignored. Young people, especially females, he said, faced acceptance issues in society after having a jail record against their name.

He emphasised the need for equipping youth with vocational training and providing them psychological counselling so that they were able to cope with societal pressures once they were home.

Speaking about the factors making youth vulnerable to extremism, Sparc project manager Shumaila Waheed said the organisation’s experience of working with youth, especially in Karachi, showed that extremist organisations targeted impressionable youth to instill hatred and divisive narratives into them.

Youth who ended up in jails, she said, were in need of specialised programmes to build sustainable counter narratives that would prevent liberated prisoners from slipping back into the same vicious cycle of violent extremism.

“The organisation has worked to improve jail conditions and successfully conducted rehabilitative projects with young and adult prisoners in the country,” she said, adding that support to prisoners’ families was also required to prevent behaviours that fuelled recruitment to extremist organisations.

Talking about government efforts, minister for local government, forests and religious affairs Nasir Hussain Shah said the government had reformed the prison laws which should be seen as a revolutionary step as these laws were more than a century old.

“This step would help regulate prisons, improve their management, control and security as well as work for prisoners’ welfare,” he noted.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Sindh Assembly member Sidra Imran highlighted the need for providing opportunities to prisoners to participate in cultural activities and vocational training without any discrimination on the grounds of race, offence, colour, gender, language, religion, sect, ethnicity or status.

Adviser to Chief Minister Sindh on Human Rights Veerji Kohli recalled his days in the Hyderabad central jail, where he spent a year in the general barracks.

“It was a remarkable experience. People from all backgrounds and religions used to live peacefully there. This you won’t even see in society. Jails are not for punishment. They are for reflection and rehabilitation,” he shared, adding that he was politically victimised.

IG-Prisons Sindh Nusrat Magan said that the department was committed to providing the best possible facilities in prisons but required support from other stakeholders.

“There is a dire need to change the public mindset (and shun the stigma attached to the prison life). This we can do it only by joining hands,” he said, emphasizing that the youth must be provided with opportunities to explore their potential and be productive members of society.

Sparc’s Kashif Mirza shared the stats on youth offenders in Karachi jails. The city had the highest number of prisoners, he said, while referring to Sindh prisons’ estimates.

“In Nov 2019, there were approximately 9,500 prisoners in four prisons of Karachi — Central Prison (4,956), District Prison and Correctional Facility in Malir (4,196), women’s prison (131), Youthful Offenders’ Industrial School Karachi (121). A majority of this population consists of undertrial prisoners (82 per cent) detained under minor and bailable offences,” he told the audience.

Some representatives of the private sector, who also participated in the discussion, replied in the negative when asked whether they would employ any youth who spent some time in jail. Job opportunities, they said, could be offered to them only if the prison department gave a guarantee in their case.

The consultation was also attended by DIG Sindh Prisons Kazi Nazir Ahmed and Superintendent of Prison and Correction Facility in Malir Aurangzaib Kango, Superintendent of Central Jail Hassan Setho and DIG-Women’s Jail and YOIS Sheeba Shah.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2020