Ombudsman stresses more improvement in prisons

PESHAWAR: Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi on Thursday called for continued efforts to bring more improvement and increase the prison capacity as he termed the reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa satisfactory.

Jointly chairing a review meeting on prison reforms along with Chief Secretary Shahzad Khan Bangash here, the ombudsman said that progress on the implementation status of reforms needed to be reviewed regularly.

KP Inspector General of Police Moazzam Jah Ansari, Home Department representatives, Director General of Prosecution, IG Prisons Saadat Hassan and other officials attended the meeting. Addressing the forum, the chief secretary said that meaningful prison reforms were among the priorities of the KP government. To make prisoners productive citizens of society, the chief secretary stated, they were imparted free education and vocational training.

IG Prisons Saadat Hassan briefed the forum on the reforms, saying that prison capacity had been increased by 4,672 inmates with the operationalisation of jails in different districts, which, he believed, has reduced overcrowding. He said that provincial and district oversight committees had been constituted to improve the overall condition of prisons, adding that the committees had visited different jails.

The IG Prisons said that 3, 522 prisoners were imparted formal education, 1,743 religious education and 825 inmates vocational training. Similarly, 1,809 prisoners received free legal aid. He said juveniles and women were segregated from other prisoners in separate blocks.

In addition, separate rooms have been established in seven jails for transgender persons. The IG Prisons told the meeting that the Prison Management Information System had been installed in 14 jails and efforts were underway to expand the system to other jails as well.