LAHORE: Failure of the Pakistani authorities to reduce severe overcrowding in prisons during the first wave of Covid-19 has left a large number of prisoners exposed to the pandemic amid rising infections and fatalities again across the country.Amnesty International (AI) and Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) unveiled the alarming situation in their report released on Thursday.

The JPP is a non-profit representing the most vulnerable prisoners facing the harshest punishments, at home and abroad.

According to the report titled ‘Prisoners of the Pandemic – The Right to Health’ examines the response of the government and judiciary to the Covid-19 challenges in prisons between March and July 2020.

Despite the authorities’ stated objective of reducing prison population to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the report finds that key court decisions and administrative failings by prison authorities contributed instead to an increase in the prison population in the early months of the pandemic.

“With infections and fatalities rising daily, overcrowding in Pakistan’s prisons is a ticking time bomb”, reads the report, advising an urgent reduction in the number of inmates in the country.

The report called upon the Pakistani authorities to urgently submit lists of prisoners at risk, eligible for early, temporary or conditional release, especially women and children.

It deplored lack of official steps taken to limit prisoner intake or reduce the pace of arrests for petty crimes and arrest and detention of several individuals “simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.

It particularly mentioned arrest of health workers protesting lack of resources and personal protection equipment, students protesting lack of internet access to attend virtual classes, and detention of a transgender rights activist for eight days during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The report said the pandemic also exposed the scarcities and systemic issues in the prison system. As a result of overcrowding, in some prisons, “between six and 15 prisoners may occupy a single jail cell built to hold a maximum of three individuals”.

It mentioned some prisoners having to sleep in shifts because of lack floor space in the prison to lie down simultaneously.

The report pointed out that in March 2020, at the start of Covid-19 outbreak, prisons authorities banned all visits to prevent transmissions and the inmates were allowed to see their families once every 15 days after almost four months. Lawyers, however, were still not permitted to visit their clients, it added.

It also deplored persistent lack of food, clean water and sanitation in the country’s prisons.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2020