LAHORE, March 17: The Punjab Prisons Department will have three new jails, including a first high security jail, in the current year. Each jail has a capacity to hold 1,000 inmates. These jails are in Okara, Bhakkar and Sahiwal. Of them, Sahiwal jail is a high security jail.

However, a fourth jail, being built in Pakpattan, may not be completed on time due to complaints of substandard construction work and slow process, officials said.

With the three jails, the number of jails in Punjab will increase from 32 to 35.

Officials say the three jails will likely to become operational before the end of year as the recruitment of staff has also been initiated by the Inspectorate of Punjab Prisons.

The Pakistan Prison Rules 1978 bound the provinces to construct a jail in each district. Currently there are 19 district jails in Punjab.

Official record available with Dawn shows the construction work on Pakpattan district jail, which has to be completed with approved cost of Rs380.390 million till March 31, is too slow.

The construction work on Sahiwal High Security Prison (Southern Punjab) will be completed on June 30 with an approved cost of Rs930.206m.

Similarly, Bhakkar district jail will likely to be completed till June 30 with the approved cost of Rs375.211m.

The authorities expect to complete the Rs561.203m Okara district jail till September 30.

Data on prisoners show that on Feb 28, 2013, 32 jail jails had 49,492 prisoners against the authorised accommodation of 21,527 prisoners.

Officials said over-crowding of jails breeds corruption and mismanagement among jail staff and creates riots riot in jails.

They say shifting of prisoners to new jails will not only help jail staff to monitor prisoners’ activities and check entry of contraband items, but also make it easy for police to transport prisoners from jails to courts for hearings.

The government spends millions on the transportation of prisoners annually, official say.

They say as many as 1,000 prisoners from Sahiwal jail will be shifted to Okara district jail and 1,000 others to Pakpattan district jail. Currently, Sahiwal jail has 3,900 inmates against the authorised accommodation of 1,750 inmates.Similarly, 700 inmates will be transferred from Mianwali Central Jail, which accommodates around 1,700 prisoners against the capacity of 1,050 prisoners, to Bhakkar district jail.

The three new jails would be operational only after a third party evaluation of construction standards.

They said authorities had detected substandard work and slow process of constructions at Pakpattan jail despite release of funds and feared delay in its construction deadline. Sources further said a prison department team visited the jail and found construction work not up to standards, adding a report was being submitted to the government over it.