RENOWNED poet and playwright Oscar Wilde said: “It is not the prisoners that need reformation. It is the prisons.” The saying is apt in the context of Pakistan as the prison system inherited from the British government in 1947 has now become outdated and is in dire need of reformation.

The prison system of any country speaks volumes about its culture. In the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the degree of “civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons”. The prison system during the colonial period was aimed at punitive measures rather than reformation. The main purpose was to detain and suppress the freedom-fighters and political leaders of the subcontinent. After indepen-dence, things changed; prisons didn’t.

Currently, there are 99 jails in Pakistan including four exclusively for women; one each in Multan, Larkana, Karachi and Hyderabad. Women are also kept in separate portions of other jails. Besides, juvenile prisoners are kept in the Youthful Offenders Industrial School, Karachi, and in separate portions of other jails. The juvenile offenders often get involved in more heinous crimes when they are released from the prison, and that says a lot about the environment inside.

Moreover, the number of inmates is far beyond the capacity of the prisons, leading to a miserable existence that is also dotted with unhygienic food and contaminated — at least unfiltered — water.

Pakistan’s old, corrupt and dysfunctional prison system needs reforms for the safety and wellbeing of the prisoners, and to make them better human beings.

Javeriya Mahar
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2021