In a bid to improve human rights situation in all the jails of the country, the government is going to provide a number of hitherto unprecedented facilities to the inmates. With an aim to transforming the country’s prisons into ‘correction centres’, Department of Prisons is undertaking several projects to improve the life of prisoners.
These include the creation of self-employment for prisoners, the establishment of experimental telephone booths named ‘Swajon’, establishment of prison garment factories to provide livelihood for prisoners, increasing the quality and allotment of food, increasing the allocation of food on special days, reconstruction and expansion of eight prisons. The information was revealed in a report sent from the Department of Prisons to the Home Ministry.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG-headquarters) Md Bazlur Rahman said on Friday that all the projects mentioned in the report sent to the ministry have been implemented. These projects and programmes are being implemented as part of the ongoing activities to transform prisons into correctional facilitates. He said that they are doing all that they can to improve the lives of prisoners.
The Department of Prisons reports that in the last two and a half years, 53 thousand prisoners have received 38 types of self-employment training in 28 prisons across the country. Legal assistance has been provided to the prisoners in the prison for paralegal activities from 2016 to 2018. As a result 11,140 prisoners have been released.
The report also said that a readymade garment factory has been set up at Narayanganj District Jail as part of the self-employment of the inmates. The prisoners in Narayanganj and in various jails in the country are being paid half of the proceeds from the sale of the products. After being released, the prisoners will be provided loans from Department of Services or Youth Development in order to rehabilitate them back into society. A prisoner rehabilitation school has been started for inmates of Part-II of Kashimpur Jail. The amount allocated for food on a daily basis as well as for special occasions is also being increased.
There will be a Prison Memorial Museum in honour of Bangabandhu and four national leaders, an open park for everyone, a prison training institute, a convention center, a digital stage, swimming pool, cineplex, acoustic sound system and a food court. The prison cells where the four leaders and Bangabandhu were kept are being preserved. The project will cost 532 crore and 39 lakh taka and will be completed by December 2020.
An official from the prison department said that while the rate of prison inmates is increasing day by day compared to that the infrastructure and facilities are not improving. Presently, the capacity of the 68 prisons in the country has capacity of 40,668. However, the actual number of prisoners is now 90,000. All prisons now have double the amount of prisoners compared to their capacity. Therefore, it is important to develop the prison infrastructure on a priority basis.
