The home minister on Sunday stated that prison population in the country is nearly twice the capacity of prisons to house them. While drawing details, the minister said that the total capacity of 68 prisons in the country is 42,866 people. The capacity is divided for both genders - 40,937 for male and 1,929 for women prisoners. And the total number of prisoners staying at different jails currently is 77,203 against the total capacity.
Though construction works for expansion of Mymensingh, Comilla, Khulna, Narsingdi and Jamalpur prisons are in progress, once completed total capacity for prisoners in the country would increase merely by 5,000.
However, Prison overcrowding is one of the key contributing factors to poor prison conditions in Bangladesh and around the world. It is also arguably the biggest single problem facing prison systems and its consequences can at worst be life-threatening , at best prevent prisons from fulfilling their regular functioning. In addition, Overcrowding is a consequence of criminal justice policy while undermining the ability of prison systems to meet basic human needs, such as healthcare, food, and accommodation.
According to a recent jail statistics, 8 out of every 10 prisoners in Bangladesh are in jail either as pre-trial detainees or on remand. This makes Bangladesh one of the top 3 countries of the world with the highest proportion of detainees. The other two countries in the world that have a higher proportion of total prison population in pre-trial/remand imprisonment than Bangladesh are - Libya (90%) and San Marino (83%), according to the World Prison Brief (WPB).
For a clearer understanding, prisoners in pre-trial detention or on remand (pre-trial detainees) are those who, in connection with an alleged offence or offences, are deprived of liberty following judicial or other legal processes, but have not been definitively sentenced. Needless use of pre-trial imprisonment carries huge social and human costs, not least the public health risks presented by today's atrocious levels of prison overcrowding in the country.
However, let us not forget that prisoners are also human beings. There is no room to play with their human rights, dignity and well being. It is up to any jail authority to ensure prisoners' mental and physical wellbeing including the quality and quantity of food they are served.
While overcrowding is one dilemma with our prisons, another is corruption.
Barely two years ago was it reported that Bangladeshi prisons are the worst among South Asian countries. Apart from overcrowding, lack of privacy, insufficient healthcare facilities, inadequate & poor quality food, substandard beddings and shoddy sanitary conditions have literally turned our prisons into chambers of perpetual torment rather than places of reform and correction.
While a long-term solution to address prison over-crowding is nowhere at sight, we urge home ministry and jail authorities to introduce a stopgap measure to free our prisons from overcrowding.
