Govt moves to free inmates with physical disabilities from overcrowded prisons

The government is weighing the option to release inmates who cannot move due to physical disabilities in a bid to free space in the overcrowded prisons.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the officials to mull over the option as the prisons in Bangladesh hold several times more than their capacity, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Thursday. 

He briefed the media after a meeting on the security measures ahead of the Language Movement Day observations on Feb 21.  

Bangladesh’s jails have a capacity to hold 36,614 inmates but the number of inmates across the country is around 82,000, according to the prisons authorities.

Most of the inmates are suspects in pending cases. To cut the number of inmates, the government has taken several steps, including some to ease case backlog. 

The home minister revealed the plan when the reporters asked him about Jahalom, who was put in jail wrongly in place of another person.

“We never expect someone to be held in prison without any reason,” Kamal said, adding that there is a cell that checks inmates for such mistakes.

He also promised action against those responsible for the arrest of Jahalom three years ago.