Only a quarter of the inmates guilty
Monday, 1 February 2010
Only a quarter of the country's 70,000 inmates have been convicted, reports bdnews24.com.
According to Brig Gen Ashraful Islam, the inspector general (IG) of prisons (Prisons), only 23 per cent of the inmates have been convicted and the rest were on trial.
It became apparent from the figures he cited after emerging from a meeting of a German-funded Tk 260 million GTZ project to alleviate overcrowding in the prisons.
It was also clear from IG (Prisons)'s comments, as well as those coming from a home ministry official, that there were a large number of inmates in the 68 jails who are there due to lack of legal support, backlog in courts and neglect of the authorities.
The prison chief, also the deputy head of the project, told reporters that the government had freed 14,000 inmates last year after the home minister undertook the pilot project.
Of them 3,000 had been released with legal aid provided through the German project.
Islam told the news agency that the country's 68 jails were overcrowded with over 70,000 inmates.
"Seventy-seven per cent of them are on trial."
Planning wing deputy chief of Home Ministry Anwar Hossain said that although the project officially started in mid-2008, release of prisoners began in January 2009.
The Home Minister launched this three-year project in July 2008 to ease the burden of inmates by releasing poor prisoners, detained on minor charges for years without trial, he said.
"These prisoners are just too poor to pursue their cases."
Although down from the previous year's 86,000 inmates, when the Awami League government took over, prisons are still overcrowded 2.5 times over their normal capacity of 27,000.
According to Brig Gen Ashraful Islam, the inspector general (IG) of prisons (Prisons), only 23 per cent of the inmates have been convicted and the rest were on trial.
It became apparent from the figures he cited after emerging from a meeting of a German-funded Tk 260 million GTZ project to alleviate overcrowding in the prisons.
It was also clear from IG (Prisons)'s comments, as well as those coming from a home ministry official, that there were a large number of inmates in the 68 jails who are there due to lack of legal support, backlog in courts and neglect of the authorities.
The prison chief, also the deputy head of the project, told reporters that the government had freed 14,000 inmates last year after the home minister undertook the pilot project.
Of them 3,000 had been released with legal aid provided through the German project.
Islam told the news agency that the country's 68 jails were overcrowded with over 70,000 inmates.
"Seventy-seven per cent of them are on trial."
Planning wing deputy chief of Home Ministry Anwar Hossain said that although the project officially started in mid-2008, release of prisoners began in January 2009.
The Home Minister launched this three-year project in July 2008 to ease the burden of inmates by releasing poor prisoners, detained on minor charges for years without trial, he said.
"These prisoners are just too poor to pursue their cases."
Although down from the previous year's 86,000 inmates, when the Awami League government took over, prisons are still overcrowded 2.5 times over their normal capacity of 27,000.