When general people have become more and more cautious about their health security following coronavirus pandemic, at that time many inmates failed to get release as their bail orders did not reach the prison authorities following the 10-day public holiday from March 26, a local newspaper reported.
On the other hand, several others who had obtained anticipatory bails are now on the run as their bail orders did not reach the police stations due to the same reason. What’s more important is that the coronavirus epidemic has exposed potentially dire health care conditions in some prisons and jails.
Prisons across the country have only one doctor for every 10,000 inmates at this moment. About 90,000 prisoners are currently staying at 68 prisons across the country, even though they can hold only 41,000 inmates. Such cramped condition is highly favourable for disease and viral infections.
Asian country Iran recently decided to temporarily release more than 54,000 prisoners who were sentenced to jail terms of less than five years, to combat the spread of coronavirus in overcrowded jails.
In our country, the Department of Prisons has sent emergency directives to jails across the country for taking precautions to check the outbreak. The number of visitors allowed to see the prisoners at a time has been restricted. Where prison allowed 3-4 visitors to meet a prisoner at a time, now they are allowing a maximum of two.
The visitors will have to follow precautions during the visit, such as washing hands with soap, using sanitizer and not touching the prisoner. Prison guards and other officials also need to wash hands before even touching the lock of the prison.
Country’s most of the jails are now crowded with minor offenders and opponent political prisoners. Prison authorities have discussed to release prisoners with minor offences but no concrete decision has come yet. There should be a pragmatic decision over the issue from the government.
The right thing to do is to try the best about how to keep thousands of prisoners safe in the most helpless situation. Nobody in his senses can fail to see how impossible task is to ensure safety in so many prisons in so many places.
Mere allegations are no proof of the crime. It is also unknown how short of resources we are facing for coping with the most ferocious virus. The lawyers’ community in particular must take up the cases.
Mere allegations are no proof of the crime. It is also unknown how short of resources we are facing for coping with the most ferocious virus. The lawyers’ community in particular must take up the cases.
