LAHORE, Oct 17: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called upon the government to undertake urgent reforms to end unrest in prisons instead of depending on short term measures.

Expressing concern at the recent incidents of unrest in prisons, an HRCP spokesman said the recent rioting and loss of lives in Hyderabad, Karachi, Multan and Timergara prisons was tragic, but unfortunately not unexpected.

The incidents were the result of problems left unsolved for decades. The issue was certainly bigger than riots or attempted breakouts.

Appalling overcrowding, rampant corruption, torture, unhygienic food, a lack of health facilities and staff training, tardy judicial process and inefficient investigation and prosecution were the key issues that had not been addressed.

The spokesman said numerous committees formed over the past 20 years on prison reforms danced around the issues without tackling them. Some useful proposals given by the committees were ignored.

Measures such as suspending officials, registering cases against prisoners accused of rioting and shifting them to other jails did not solve the problem. The reported torture of prisoners after rioting or provision of more teargas shells and smoke bombs to police, as was being considered after the recent riots in Hyderabad Jail, was no solution to the problem.

The spokesman said that according to the jail surgeon the prisoners killed in rioting in Karachi’s Malir Jail had been shot in the head or chest. This was hardly the ideal method for riot control or use of minimum force needed to quell rioting, and pointed to deficient training for jail staff at the very least.

The top leadership of the country was aware of the problems in prisons as it too had remained in prison. The leadership suggested immediate remedial measures which must be implemented.

The spokesman said that prisoner’s rights, including their right to life and dignity, must be respected under all circumstances and their safety should be ensured.

Punishments other than penal servitude should be considered, especially for petty crimes, to reduce the population of already overcrowded jails. Prisoners must be allowed communication with their families and lawyers via phone, at least under supervision.

The criminal justice system needed to be reviewed with an adequate number of judicial officers to tackle undue delays in cases.

The spokesman said the approach toward the prison system needed to be changed, the prisoner and the jailer both needed to be humanised, and terms of service of jail staff needed to be improved.

A change to the Criminal Procedures Code in October 2001 took away a provision regarding mandatory bail to prisoners whose trial would not begin for two years. This was presumably done to deny the benefit of bail to political prisoners, but it led to massive swelling in the prisons population.

The government must earnestly pursue a crash programme to deal with the issues and ensure that reforming prisoners must be central to any prison reform initiative.