KARACHI, March 17: Every now and again, a report on the Central Jail, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur or other major jails in the interior indicates the same problems: highhandedness by the jail staff, sometimes bordering on dehumanizing treatment of the inmates, pervasive corruption and other shared ills. Newspaper reports highlighting these, changes little in the prison system. Why?

A political prisoner who spent more than eight years in different prisons in the interior observes that rampant corruption among the jail guards is chiefly responsible for the harsh prison environ. “They make life as difficult as possible for a prisoner so that he is forced to pay up.”

For instance, a prisoner who has never rolled out a roti in his life is assigned to the tandoor to help bake hundreds of rotis a day; or asked to draw out water working the hand pump for hours altogether; or made to wear rusted and rough edged chain fetters in his feet and labour in the garden; or to collect the dirty water from the drains, containing human waste. “These are some ways used by jailers to extort money.”

“The poor salary of the superintendent — not more than Grade 16 or 17 in smaller jails, and grade 18 in the central prison — coupled with extensive powers and lack of accountability also makes them ruthless.”

They tend to resort to “black laws” rather than strictly follow the Jail Manual to run the prison, knowing fully well they can get away with everything, “including murder,” he said. And added, “No jailer has ever been hanged for a prisoner’s death or for extra-judicial killing,” he said.

“It is ironic,” says this former prisoner, “that retired majors have been appointed to run the central prisons — and not professionals with managerial skills and a background in psychology. The jail staff have no training on how to rehabilitate prisoners. Their stress is only on authority.”

“The bottom line is,” says this one-time prisoner, “the state wants coercive powers and that explains the neglect of prisons.”

Justice (R) Salahuddin Mirza who, as Ombudsman from 1995 to 1999, conducted a detailed inquiry into the Central Jail, Hyderabad — and also visited prisons abroad at the behest of the then government — says that the recurrent violations in prisons can simply be attributed to one factor, “Lack of will among the authorities concerned”.

Justice (R) S. Mirza was asked to conduct an inquiry in August 1996, after reports of the use of bar fetters and other excesses in Hyderabad jail appeared in the newspapers; this subsequently led to the sealing of the jail and a massive search which ignited protests against the jail authorities by prisoners, many of whom suffered injuries.

In the inquiry that followed, Justice S. Mirza recorded some shocking facts, including the practice of locking up grown-up men in the Juvenile ward at night who “committed sodomy” in full view of the whole ward of 100 boys. The older boys in the Juvenile ward were “also preying upon the young boys”.

The Ombudsman saw the Bund or Seal ward, “a horrible place” which had an iron bar on the roof with a hook from which “a victim was said to be hung”. He saw several prisoners with “marks of violence” including “two-inch-long cuts, made by knives or blades on the chest”.

Some other observations included stinking latrines of barracks with a stench so strong “that I felt like vomiting while standing there”.

The prisoners alleged the use of bar fetters by the jailers as a punishment; the wide practice of graft and many other ills.

Despite highlighting these details in his report which was handed to the then governor, Justice Salahuddin notes that no stern measures were taken against the jail superintendent, Major Ghulam Khoso, by the authorities concerned. “He was only suspended for some time — which is no punishment — to be reinstated later.”

Recently, in January 2002, the situation in Hyderabad Jail once again became volatile with reports of excesses, including “sodomy” appearing in the press.

Given this tendency of jail conditions to deteriorate Justice Salahuddin believes constant monitoring is a must to avert some chronic ills. “The Sessions Judges are required to visit the prison according to the rules, but the work overload in court prevents them.” Given this, a committee of reputed and independent citizens, including from the press, NGOs and the Bar, should be granted “the right to regularly visit the prisons” in the area.

He regretted that his report written after visiting prisons in Sweden, Hong Kong, Manila, Seoul and Singapore on the arrangement by the then government, is gathering dust in the Ombudsman’s office.

Dr Amin Gadet, head of the psychiatry department, Hamdard university emphasizes the need for a personality test of candidates being considered for the post of superintendent. If the test betrays a trace of sadism in the candidate, he should be rejected. “Some studies in the US have shown that such superintendents tend to go wild given their great powers and the helplessness of prisoners”.

Dr Gadet who has himself conducted detailed studies on prisoners, advocates that a psychologist or psychiatrist should be on the FPSC board which selects superintendents. “This will ensure that only persons with humane and amenable disposition are selected.”

Former jail superintendent of Mach and Quetta jail Sheikh Ghulam Murtaza observes that the existing prison system has a baleful effect on all prisoners except for the strong in character.

G. Murtaza who spent 34 years in jail service says that the jail guards seek to exert authority by stripping the prisoner of every shred of self-respect — through beatings, assignment of demeaning work, use of foul language and threats; torture and extortion.

This is largely because of the poor standard of selection of jail guards, the ineffective training and the low pay, which he asserts, must be upgraded. “Jail guards who are in constant touch with the prisoners must be at least matriculates.” The three month training being imparted at present by the Staff Training Institute in Lahore is “most unsatisfactory”.

He believes that military drills prescribed for jail guards in the prison rules should be a regular practice as it will “raise their self esteem” when they “match a military officer in smartness”. This, in effect, will help improve their conduct.

To keep a close eye on the going-ons of the prison, he suggests that the deputy officer’s office should be within the prison and not in the administration bloc.

The former superintendent is also of the view that the large chunks of idle time is bad for prisoners. He advocates prison industries on professional lines to teach them a useful skill, keep them busy and help them earn in prison. This he says was a practice during the British times, till the one unit era.

To help prevent homosexuality among prisoners, he believes that conjugal rights, particularly of well behaved, long term prisoners should be granted. “No doubt this would mean many practical difficulties but we can study how these have been tackled by Iran and some other countries.”

Other steps he believes that will help to check the prison environment from deteriorating are regular sports for prisoners and an independent committee to monitor prisons.