KARACHI: Setting up barracks inside the prison won’t make up for the insufficiency of the judicial system, speakers said at a seminar titled ‘Sindh Prison Reforms through the lens of Legal Aid’ on Wednesday.

Held and organised by an advocacy group, named Legal Aid Office, a report based on the group’s research and survey of 17 prisons in Sindh was also distributed to those attending the seminar.

Speaking specifically about the central prison, they not only pointed fingers at the judicial system — which is adding to the present quandary inside prisons — but also presented solutions.

About the report, Prof Akmal Wasim, head of litigation and research department at LAO, said his team looked at some persistently problematic issues pertaining to prisons. It included overcrowding, segregation and separation of convicted prisoners and under-trial prisoners, infrastructure and security, torture and abuse, visitation rights among others. “It’s very easy to hurl abuses at the prison administration but equally difficult to understand the conditions under which the staff has to work,” Prof Akmal said.

About overcrowding in prisons, he said that currently no international standard for the minimum rate space was being followed in prisons across Sindh. Some prisons in the province, including the central prison in Karachi, had exceeded their population capacity by 55.9 per cent meaning it was over populated. However, he hastily added that not all prisons in Sindh faced overcrowding as such.

Security and infrastructure under the current circumstances was discussed at length. It was agreed without much dissent by anyone that the current state of prisons in Karachi, security wise or otherwise, was deplorable. Apart from that there was an evident lack of advanced security measures.

Prof Akmal was of the opinion that there should be proper coordination among the Rangers, police and the prison administration, otherwise, prisons would always pose a threat to the people living around it.

To check the rising threat level, it is important to overlook the visitation rights. Basically, Prof Akmal said, it should be looked over who was visiting the prison. With the verification of the home department, pre-approved lists of immediate relatives should be handed by the prison administration to their staff. “We can’t completely ban the prisoners from meeting their relatives, as according to chapter 22, rule 538 of Pakistan Prison Rules gives visitation rights to the prisoners,” he added.

However, an alarming number of under-trial prisoners made the majority inside the prisons, said IG prison Nusrat Mangan. He said at present there were 18,600 prisoners across Sindh. “Out of them 3,000 are convicts, 442 are condemned prisoners and rest are under-trial prisoners,” he added.

Mr Mangan said the prison administration was still following the rules made during the “Raj era”.

“There has been an increase in the number of prisoners since 2013 and it is not entirely related to the ongoing targeted operation by the Rangers in the city,” he said.

He explained that till 2008 the overall number of prisoners in Sindh was around 22,000 but it drastically dropped to 16,000 the following year. He suggested that the best way to make prisons more manageable was to establish smaller prisons. “We usually take a general approach towards things rather than understanding the core of issues. It is idealistic to speak about the judicial system, but till that happens, the workable way is to make prisons manageable just like women and juvenile prisons are at the moment.”

He said that what prison officials needed was support and cooperation from the civil society and judges.

While taking a question by a member from the audience, Mr Mangan said: “Unfortunately, we have a class system in prisons where small time criminals have to serve and work for the A class prisoner. Most work in the kitchen as well, without getting paid. Most of such issues, especially the ones regarding funds, is not directly related to the prison head; as provincial and federal governments are also responsible to release funds.”

The last question put across to the IG prisons was by Citizens-Police Liaison Committee chief Ahmed Chinoy, who sought his comment over the infiltration of cellphones inside prison cells. Mr Mangan said they had held meetings with five mobile phone companies about their jammers not working on some networks, “but understandably so we can’t control these things. The nearby colony is surely affected by the jammers. We are dealing with it.”

Secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan I.A.Rehman said: “We can’t speak about prison reforms without looking at our concept of justice. While punishing a criminal we make sure that he’s turned into a hardened one.”

Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid said: “We (judges) should be relaxed and liberal when it comes to granting bail to some prisoners. Constructing more prisons is not the solution to overpopulation in prison cells. We should aim to speed up our judicial system.”