300 prisoners died on the way to hospital in 5 years and 9 months
Prisoners continue to die one after another while being taken from jails to hospitals. Many others die while undergoing treatment in hospitals. In many cases, the prisoners are not old, meaning that some of these deaths are premature.
According to data from the Department of Prisons and various hospitals in Dhaka, as many as 1,016 prisoners died in the nearly five years and nine months from 2021 to 28 September. Of them, at least 300 died while being taken from prisons to hospitals.
The latest such death occurred on Tuesday night. The deceased was Abu Taher, 34. Golam Faruk, senior jail superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail, told Prothom Alo that Abu Taher was brought to the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital from Kishoreganj District Jail-2 at around 9:15pm yesterday after falling ill. Physicians on duty at the emergency department said he had been brought to the hospital dead.
According to data from the Department of Prisons covering January to August and information published in newspapers for September, at least 250 prisoners died in the nearly nine months from the beginning of this year to 28 September.
This means an average of about 28 prisoner deaths a month this year. Over the five years and nine months, the monthly average was 15. This indicates that prisoner deaths have increased this year.
The Department of Prisons is also concerned about deaths occurring while prisoners are being taken to hospitals. On 25 January, the department sent a letter to all jail superintendents. The letter said that “brought in dead” cases—prisoners being brought to hospitals already dead—had recently increased at an alarming rate. The matter had come to the attention of senior authorities. The letter instructed officials to take necessary measures to prevent deaths on the way to hospitals.
Relatives allege that prisoners are kept in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions in jails. Many become ill in such an environment, while others already suffer from health problems. Many prisoners do not receive medical treatment in time, resulting in deaths.
Prison authorities also acknowledge the shortage of medical facilities. They say the problem has existed for many years, but there has been no effective initiative to resolve it.
Asked about the matter, acting Inspector General of Prisons Colonel Mohammad Mustafa Kamal told Prothom Alo that no death was desirable. He said deaths had increased because the prison inmates had grown. He added that prison hospitals were facing shortages of physicians, nurses and ambulances.
Physicians working on a temporary basis also do not stay at prison hospitals for more than two hours. When vehicles have to be hired to take sick prisoners to outside hospitals, delays often occur.
Giving an example, Mustafa Kamal said that when a seriously ill prisoner needs to be taken from Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the journey takes at least three hours because of traffic congestion. In such circumstances, prisoners sometimes die on the way.
Sick prisoners are transferred to Dhaka from various prisons across the country for treatment. Sending them from Dhaka Central Jail to specialised hospitals in the capital takes additional time. Had immediate treatment been available at prison hospitals, some prisoners might have survived, he said.
Normally, the country’s prisons hold between 80,000 and 82,000 prisoners. As of yesterday, the number had reached 106,000. The official capacity of the prisons is 45,186.
Why Has the Prison Population Increased?
Prisons house people convicted of various crimes. They also hold accused people who have not been granted bail while their cases are ongoing. There are 75 prisons in the country, including 15 central prisons and 60 district prisons.
The Department of Prisons lists five areas under its mission on its website: ensuring the safe custody of prisoners; maintaining strict security in prisons and discipline among prisoners; treating prisoners humanely; ensuring proper accommodation, food, medical care and opportunities to meet relatives, friends and lawyers; and providing the motivation and training necessary to rehabilitate them in society as responsible citizens.
The question is whether it is possible to ensure adequate accommodation, food and medical care when prisons are housing nearly two and a half prisoners for every available place.
The World Prison Brief website provides data on the number of prisoners held in the country over the years, with figures given at two-year intervals. According to the website, 65,662 prisoners were held in 2014. The number has continued to rise since then. In 2020, the prison population was around 88,000.
According to data listed on the website since 2000, the number of prisoners had never exceeded 100,000. However, the figure was slightly above 102,000 this September. The latest figure from the Department of Prisons is another 4,000 higher. It is worth noting that on 23 October 2025, during the interim government’s tenure, the prison population stood at 78,000.
Prison sources and law enforcement officials say arrests have increased in an effort to maintain law and order. People involved in various offences, including drug cases, mugging and cybercrime, are being arrested. Many are also being arrested in political cases. Some people who were already in prison are not receiving bail for days on end. As a result, the prison population is increasing.
Shortage of physicians
According to the Department of Prisons, there are 148 sanctioned physicians’ posts for the country’s 75 prison hospitals. However, only two permanent physicians are currently in service. One is at Manikganj District Jail and the other at the Rajshahi Prison Training Centre.
Prison sources said 101 physicians are sent to prison hospitals on a temporary basis from the offices of the respective district civil surgeons. They remain at the hospitals for only a few hours a day. As a result, it becomes difficult to provide immediate treatment if a prisoner falls ill after noon.
There are only 27 ambulances for the 75 prison hospitals. When a sick prisoner needs to be sent from a prison hospital to an outside hospital, an ambulance is often unavailable. They then have to be transported in other vehicles, which generally do not have facilities for providing oxygen.
A number of prisoners have died one after another in recent days. At Dhaka Medical College Hospital, two prisoners died within a span of just 40 minutes on 26 September. Both had been inmates of Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj. The deceased were Parash Talukdar, 35, and Swapan Chandra Das, 59. One of them was declared dead immediately after being brought to the hospital.
Two prisoners from Dhaka Central Jail died while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on 23 September. They were Tofazzal alias Palash, 38, and Iftekhar Mahmud, 36. Both were under 40. On the afternoon of 24 September, Asaduzzaman Sheikh, 42, a prisoner at Faridpur District Jail, died in the prison ward of Faridpur Medical College Hospital.
Khairul Amin Ruhul Sarker, 50, a Kishoreganj leader of the now-banned Swechchhasebak League, died while undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hospital in Dhaka on Saturday night.
According to prison sources, Khairul was taken to Shaheed Syed Nazrul Islam Medical College Hospital in Kishoreganj after experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. When his condition deteriorated, he was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the afternoon for advanced treatment. He was later admitted to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hospital.
Khairul Amin Ruhul Sarker’s elder brother, Mohammad Nurul Amin, said Khairul had complained of chest pain for three consecutive days while in prison. Medical treatment was not arranged for him in time. Had he received proper treatment on time, his condition might not have become so critical, he said.
According to the Department of Prisons and prison hospital sources, many prisoners suffer from heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney and liver disease, diabetes, and various skin and dental conditions. They therefore require regular medical care.
Binita Roy, a physician at Dhaka Central Jail, told Prothom Alo yesterday that there are 13,500 prisoners at Dhaka Central Jail. The prison hospital is supposed to have seven physicians, but only two physicians, including her, are currently attached to the hospital.
She said the prison hospital does not provide specialised treatment. Sick prisoners are transferred from there to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hospital, the National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology and other specialised hospitals in Dhaka. Although the hospital has medical equipment, very few diagnostic tests are conducted because of a shortage of staff.
Under the rules, every prison is supposed to have a psychiatrist. But there are none. There are around 3,000 female prisoners, but no gynaecologist is available.
Temporary doctors said they have to treat 300 to 400 prisoners a day. The patient load is extremely high. At the same time, physicians are reluctant to work in prison hospitals because of limited opportunities for promotion and fewer career benefits. ‘The State and Prison Authorities Cannot Avoid Responsibility’
On 17 December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 70/175, establishing the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The rules were named the Nelson Mandela Rules in honour of South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
The central principle of the Nelson Mandela Rules is that keeping prisoners in inhumane conditions, denying them necessary medical care or undermining their dignity cannot in any way be considered part of their punishment. The state is also responsible for ensuring the life, health and safety of prisoners while they are in state custody.
Human rights activist M Nur Khan told Prothom Alo that prisoners should be considered to be in the safe custody of the state while in prison. Under the law, they should receive the amount of food they are entitled to and adequate space to sleep. Yet 15 people are crammed into spaces meant for 10.
If a prisoner suffers a heart attack or stroke after evening, emergency medical treatment is needed. Because of the shortage of physicians, such treatment cannot always be provided. If a prisoner suddenly becomes seriously ill at night, they cannot always be transferred because of shortages of ambulances or other transport.
Nnur Khan said, “There remain serious questions about these deaths. The state and prison authorities cannot avoid responsibility for them. These are criminal acts of negligence.”