LAHORE: The Lahore High Court directed the government to revamp the jail industries, equip the inmates with essential skills to aid their rehabilitation and reintegration into the society and match the educational syllabus of the jails with the public and private institutions.
The court passed this direction the other day in a public interest litigation petition of a human rights activist Rida Qazi pending since 2010 and directed the establishment of women’s jails at Lahore, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi to protect the rights of female prisoners confined in male prisons.
The court also proposed that a Psychiatric Ward or independent hospital on the analogy of the Punjab Institute of Mental Health be established at the regional level, especially at Rawalpindi and Multan to ensure the treatment and confinement of mentally ill prisoners in conformity with the guidelines stipulated by the Supreme Court.
The court also asked for the construction of a prison facility at Islamabad to reduce congestion in Central Jail, Rawalpindi as currently, 3200 prisoners belonging to the territorial jurisdiction of Islamabad Capital Territory are incarcerated in Rawalpindi.
The court also directed the government to establish open prisons with minimum security for the confinement of convicted prisoners in the last year of their sentence helping them to re-integrate into society.
The court also directed the Punjab Prisons to introduce an Electronic Prisoner File Management System to impart transparency and efficiency in Prisons Management and digitalize all the prisoner records with NADRA.
To streamline the legal process and reduce delays, the court advised for digitalization of records of the courts, prisons, and the prosecution and their integration and also asked to exercise the option of the trial through video link to reduce delay.
The court also directed the government to simplify the procedure of release on parole and such parole prisoners should be engaged in community service, in industry and commercial institutions, the court added.
The court said the nature of work and employment of the prisoner be assessed based on qualification, skill, and age, to be released on parole.
The court also directed the government to expedite the process of revamping probation and parole service including training of the probation officers, up-gradation and infrastructure.
The court also advised the Punjab Prisons to establish an external inspection mechanism to ensure accountability and transparency in the prison system.
The court also asked the Punjab Prisons to train the prison staff enabling them to deal with dangerous, psychologically disturbed, drug addicts, and death-row prisoners, and the prisoners have tendency to inflict self-harm or injury.
The court also sought the need of revisions of relevant rules in conformity with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules (Nelson Mandela Rules) and the directions of the High Courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan passed in different cases to protect the rights of prisoners.
The court directed all the concerned authorities to submit a progress report on future improvements in the Prison Management System including on the court’s recommendations to the monitoring judge of the Prisons in Punjab quarterly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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