Rigorous imprisonment to go from new jail code

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The government is going to repeal the provision of backbreaking work for prisoners as part of a massive amendment to the Jail Code about to be implemented soon.

The amendment will also introduce provisions of freeing inmates on parole, freedom of observing religious rituals inside jails, entertainment for prisoners, simplification of the division facility system, and removal of discrimination in allocation of foods for inmates.

The much talked about jail code reform plan worked out by a home secretary-led committee, which had begun in 2003, was completed on August 1. According to government officials, the amended code will be enacted this month after the cabinet approves it.

Following demands from different rights groups for modernising the Jail Code and removing inhumane provisions from it, which had been introduced by the British government in 1864, the Government of Bangladesh formed Bangladesh Jails Reform Commission in 1978 with Justice FKMA Munim as its head.

Although the commission submitted its report in 1980 after studying jail codes of 14 countries and a committee was formed to implement its recommendations, the British-introduced jail code is still in effect with some minor changes to some of its 1388 codes.

The amended jail code will officially stop the provision of engaging prisoners in hard labour like road construction, stone crushing, removal of earth, masonry, and milling of grains and operating old-fashioned oil mills manually.

“Engaging prisoners in such work has not been carried out properly since the liberation and now it is going to be officially banned,” Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Zakir Hasan told The Daily Star yesterday.

Prisoners, however, will have to fetch water, work in kitchens, produce handicrafts, line up for head counts, work as accountants in wards, as attendants in hospitals, and as sweepers and cleaners.

Although the British-introduced Jail Code allowed only male prisoners to produce handicrafts and sew, the amendment will also allow female prisoners to do those.

Removing discrimination in providing foods to inmates where some of them get 10 chhataks of rice each in total for two meals a day and some others get 12 chhataks will be changed, and all prisoners and detainees will from now on get 12 chhataks of rice for two meals a day.

The quantity of molasses for breakfast will be doubled from 15 grams to 30 grams. The number and quantity of spices used to cook meals for prisoners also have been increased in the amended Jail Code.

While earlier, only the courts used to define who among the under trial prisoners would get division facilities in jails, the amendment will also empower heads of prisons to decide who will enjoy the facilities.

Citizens covered by 18 categories of warrant of precedence comprising professor emeritus, those who received gallantry awards and Ekushey Padak, commercially important persons (CIPs), and presidents and general secretaries of all political parties represented in the parliament will get divisions.

Explaining the provision of releasing a prisoner on parole, the IG Prisons said, “Released few months or years before completing his or her term, a prisoner will stay at a designated place under observation of a social welfare officer.”

District committees comprising prison officials will decide, after studying a prisoner’s record, who can be released on parole, while a national committee headed by the home secretary will take the decision in special cases, he added. Those sentenced to death or life terms will not enjoy the facility of parole.

Besides officially including a provision of providing iftar to the inmates who fast during Ramadan, the amendment officially introduces installing of televisions and ceiling fans in prisons although the practice has already begun.

The amended Jail Code will provide food for the children of inmates aged up to six years while the existing code allows food for children aged up to two years.

Instead of supplying only caustic soda in toilets, the amendment allows a toilet soap and two laundry soaps for each inmate.

The amended Jail Code also allows jail guards to use walkie-talkies and binoculars to strengthen jail security.

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