Prison reforms

Our colonial-era prison system has miserably failed to rehabilitate and educate criminals. In fact our prisons have become factories for producing more criminals. With the passage of time, the condition for inmates has gone from bad to worse because of inadequate funding. The majority of jails are overcrowded, meaning also that the crime rate in our society has gone up due to multiple factors – poverty being the major reason. Instead of spending billions of taxpayers’ money every year to incarcerate people who will do society no good when released, our lawmakers should legislate to shorten sentences and spend the remaining money on training, education, and treatment. This will create more productive members of society. For this a commission needs to be constituted with the task to reform jails throughout the country. Nasir Soomro Hyderabad