Govt to free about 500 convicts from ‘overcrowded’ Khulna jail

As many as 482 prisoners, who have been serving for years in Khulna jail on minor convictions, will be released as per the directives of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to ease overcrowding in the prison.

The jail authorities prepared the list based on a set of parameters before sending it to Dhaka, recommending their release in phases subject to final approval, reports UNB.

The directive in this regard will come soon, says Jannatul Farhad, jailer of Khulna Jail.

Inspector general (prisons) brigadier general Syed Iftekharuddin, earlier, disclosed 142 prisoners have been released from Sylhet Central Jail after completing all legal steps, with more to follow under the phased-out process.

Prison system of Bangladesh has been stretched to breaking point in recent times mostly due to overcrowded space, with the spike in arrests in the light of the campaign to root out militancy, and even more following the intensified anti-narcotics drive that was rolled out last May.

The country’s 68 jails can accommodate 36,614 prisoners that already are crowded with more than 70,000 prisoners, about double the capacity and the number has increased to 83,350 as of 24 June, said officials of Department of Prisons.

The jail authorities had complained that they were facing difficulties to accommodate the growing number of prisoners, especially in the frontier districts, as those are overcrowded well above their capacity.

The most startling revelation in the numbers obtained from the Department of Prisons. Over 35,000 accused were jailed on drugs-related cases as of 24 June. Yet less than 1 in 7 of them, some 5,218, had actually been convicted in the cases. Around 19,000 were embroiled in some stage of the trial process, stretching out over years in many cases.

Close to 11,000 individuals jailed in drugs related cases were yet to enter trial, effectively putting their lives in limbo, even though the court might eventually find many of them to be innocent.