Engage jail inmates in commercial productions, split profits: Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered the home ministry to engage the inmates of the jails across Bangladesh in commercial production of goods.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 Jan 2019, 10:24 PM
Updated : 20 Jan 2019, 10:24 PM

She issued the orders during a visit to the ministry on Sunday so that the prisoners can share the profit and use the money and training for rehabilitation after release.   

“We are coming up with new ideas as well as making new buildings in the prisons,” Hasina told the home ministry officials.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and Inspector General of Prisons AKM Mustafa Kamal Pasha, among others, were present.

The prime minister said her government has already begun training inmates and getting them to produce goods on a limited scale.

The families of the inmates will be able to get the share of the profit made from the sale of products or they can use the profit and training for employment after release, she said.

Different countries in the world engage inmates in commercial production of goods.

Bangladesh also has rigorous imprisonment, but it has not been used for commercial purposes as yet.

“We are going to include the prisoners’ labour in the mainstream workforce. Prisons in Bangladesh will become correction centres, not what we mean by conventional prisons,” Md Iqbal Hasan, an additional IG of prisons, told bdnews24.com.

The government has approved guidelines on production of goods by using the labour of the prisoners and sharing the profit with them, he added.

Out of the around 93,000 inmates in the prisons, 17.22 percent are convicted and most of them are aged between 18 and 60, according to Iqbal.