The purpose of setting up prisons is to reduce crime from the society and to train criminals to become useful citizens for the country.
Below are some problems to be solved and some suggestions to be implemented to provide favorable environment to the jail inmates especially convicted prisoners so that they too can play an important role in the development of the society. Skill Development Institution should be established so that in all 43 jails of Punjab, those who have been in jail for years due to lack of extradition or prisoner bail, their business or job has ended, they can be released from jail by making them skilled. Doing so should be a priority for the government.
These prisoners should be given various courses like IT, computer and artificial intelligence and freelancing etc. This work can also be done under Public Private Partnership. Welfare organizations take interest in the education, health and legal aid of these prison inmates. Indoor games like badminton, volleyball and other physical activities are very important for the mental and physical health of prisoners. All prisoners should be allowed to play indoor games, including death row inmates.
The government announces prison reforms, the courts also decide on this but it is not implemented here. Due to lack of opportunities for sports, inmates get involved in negative activities. The prison has school teachers to cater to the educational needs of the inmates.
Children make up less than 5% of the total number of captives while over 95% of the adult captives who want to study or continue their education have neither a school nor a college nor a teacher, Guess Punjab. More than 60,000 prisoners in the prisons of India, who have a lot of time, are deprived of the basic human facility of education and learning skills. The only facility here is that the student can apply and prepare for the exam on his own.
Moral training is most needed in prison. The law regarding the hearing of the appeals of the convicted prisoners in criminal cases, especially the death penalty prisoners, which are being heard in the higher courts, should be amended and the appeals should be heard in a timely manner. In November 2024, the number of honorable judges of the Supreme Court has been doubled.
Similarly, the vacancies of respected judges in the High Courts should be filled immediately so that timely justice is possible. Should the Honorable Justices of the Honorable High Courts visit the prisons so that the problems of the prisoners are known and the poor people have been waiting for their attention in the prison for years. If the appeal of the death sentence prisoners is not heard in the honorable high courts, then one of the cases is that the honorable judge himself sets the next date for the hearing, otherwise the appeal is set for hearing again. It happens. Left Over, to make that appeal, they have to pay money, i.e. bribes, and Cylian has to go round the courts again and again. If these are fixed, the poor beggars can avoid additional financial burdens in the form of corruption and humiliation.
There are currently 6,161 death row prisoners in Pakistan’s jails. Last year this number was 6 thousand 39. JPP, a non-governmental organization fighting for the rights of death row prisoners, has prepared a report entitled Death Penalty in Pakistan Data Mapping Capital Punishment.
This report states that the number of death row prisoners is 2505. It is also a fact that although the President of Pakistan has the power to pardon a death row prisoner under Article 45 of the Constitution, but due to many reasons, many Fewer prisoners can use the right to appeal to the President of Pakistan. The Supreme Court has written in the judgment of a person who was released with honor after 34 years of life imprisonment that we are admitting our mistake. Will the executive also admit his mistake? The judgment further states that the government, state, courts, lawyers and the accused should all accept their own mistakes.
A senior lawyer mentioned the dire situation of the death row prisoners and said that the sessions court gives the death sentence to the accused, but ten years would pass before hearing the appeal against the decisions of the sessions court in the high court and then in the supreme court. are
In the Supreme Court last week, the sentence of a person awaiting death for 10 years was changed to life imprisonment. Informed citizens and lawyers familiar with the ins and outs of the police system and the law say that the focus of the police is on the poor, so most of the seniors who are sentenced to death are innocent. Many of these families are destitute, paying huge fees to poor lawyers and paying bribes to court staff and prison staff. The current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Yahya Afridi, has undertaken to reform the prisons as soon as he assumed office. The Chief Justice is now the last hope of the prisoners detained in the jail.
