Editorial
Jail reform imperative
Prisons are part of justice system
The news that there are only 16 doctors, against the post of 77, to look after the health condition of as many as 86,000 jailed prisoners beats all sense of propriety. It paints a sordid picture of the state of the prison houses of the country. The Dhaka Central Jail has only three doctors to take care of about 9,500 (actual capacity 2,682) prisoners. And 13 other doctors are posted in various other prisons across the country.
Country's 67 jails are packed with inmates three times more than the capacity; with such a huge prison population living in confinement in a not-too-spacious area, it is only logical that keeping good health cannot be an easy proposition even if one tries one's best. This surely is a cause of concern and one must not be oblivious of the fact that prisoners are humans too and their well-being rests on the shoulder of the authorities concerned. This needs to be added here that many prisoners also suffer from mild to serious mental ailments that need special care and round the clock attention.
The other disturbing fact that came up in an investigative report is that there is veritable lack of follow-up health care facilities as trained nurses are not available in the jail hospitals. Appallingly, often convicts serving rigorous prison sentences are assigned to work as nurses in the hospitals inside the jails. Thus one can well imagine the quality of heath care service being offered in these hospitals.
One the other hand, prisons cannot keep good doctors as there are no extra incentives, like ration, deputation allowance, opportunity to go abroad for training or do outdoor private practice etc. The fact that jails need to appoint more doctors and improve hospital facilities has been reiterated by the AIG of Police (Prisons) himself; therefore, the authorities ought to give it a serious thought.
Along with reforms effective and proactive steps should be taken to quickly dispose of cases of under-trial prisoners and shift juvenile prisoners to correction homes. The issue of separating the young from the hard-core adult criminals must be observed strictly to ensure their safety and rights.
There are other elements of reform that will have to be carried out to modernise our jails, like the jail code for one, to bring them at par with standards maintained in some other forward-looking developing countries.
The reform measures ought to be taken on the clear perception that jails are part of the justice system.
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