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Kathmandu Wednesday January 10, 2001 Paush 26,, 2057.
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Reform country’s jails
Justice delayed is justice denied. If this is an accepted truth, then the
prisoners of five regional jails living in inhumane conditions year upon year are denied
the basic necessities they are entitled to. This fact also indicates that the government
has taken no steps to improve the condition of country’s jails. Neither has the
government implemented the report submitted by the Parliamentary State Affairs Committee
(SAC), nor has it been able to allocate adequate funds to run these jails. As a result,
jail inmates - be they mentally ill or HIV/AIDS victims - continue to suffer, due to lack
of separate cells, malnutrition and physical torture.
Last June, SAC prepared a report, suggesting both long and short term plans
to improve the living condition of jail inmates. It was natural that the government formed
SAC to conduct such a study on the deteriorating condition of the country’s jails.
This initiative was prompted when many prisoners complained of various kinds of sufferings
- malnutrition, physical torture, sexual abuse, inadequate space, poor sanitation, death
in prisons and so on. It is a known fact that prisoners are deprived of basic necessities.
And the inmates’ demand for improvement of their woeful living conditions was clearly
justified. Given the present condition of the five regional jails, none of them provides
even the minimum facility acceptable to prisoners.
There are no separate cells for women who are living with their children nor
do their children attend schools. HIV/AIDS victims, mentally ill inmates and those with
contagious diseases are kept together at the risk of their health. What appears worse is
that the number of mentally ill and unstable prisoners in the central jail is far greater
than in other regional jails. This apart, the daily allowance of 15 rupees and 700 grams
of rice for each inmate are other miseries that speak of the bitter truth.
The government should not forget that jail inmates are living in century-old
buildings, which are on the verge of collapse. They must be treated as ordinary human
beings to reintegrate them into our society. In order to do so, it has to construct new
buildings with adequate facilities so that HIV/AIDS and mentally ill prisoners can live
separately from each other. The government must also ensure the provision of employment to
prisoners to develop their skills and make them self-reliant after they come out of
prisons. If these aspects are guaranteed while implementing the SAC report, the government
will at least have fulfilled the basic necessities it has failed to provide thus far.
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