Mestri: About 1000 females languish in country’s jails

KABUL (Pajhwok): About 16,000 prisoners, including 1000 women, have been passing their days and nights in the country’s jails, detention centers and correctional and training centers.

Director General of Prisons Reform, Maulvi Mohammad Yusuf Mestri, in an exclusive interview told Pajhwok currently 11,000 convicted prisoners languished in the country’s prisons and the remaining 4,000 were in custody pending court decisions.

He said among the 11,000 convicts, there were 1,000 women and about 600 children.

He said the condition of the country’s prisons had improved compared to the past and all the rights given to the prisoners.

To a question about death row prisoners, if any, in the country’s prisons, he said there will be prisoners awaiting qisas, but the government has not yet taken any action in this regard.

“The leadership prefers amnesty from the heirs of deceased.”

He said no prisoner had been tortured in any prison of the country and if anyone had complaint, they should contact them.

Mestri said facilities had been increased in prisons and the prisoners served good quality food.

“We supply hot water in winter and cold water in summer. There were almost no heaters in all prisons in the past. We have bought heaters and coolers for prisoners.”

He said prisoners in the past were allowed only one hour yard time in a week and now they spent half day outside if remained peaceful.

About medical care, he said 20 and 50-bed hospitals were operational to treat the prisoners in the center and if any prisoners could not be treated in these hospitals, then they were referred to major hospitals of the city.

He added that in the past three years, more than 10,000 prisoners had been released on various occasions based on the order of the leadership of the Islamic Emirate.

He also said that education and vocational training programs had been implemented for prisoners and now they were practically engaged in industrial jobs.

He said implementation of such programs had turned prisoners into correctional centers.

He said the Bagram prison had been reactivated and some prisoners transferred there.

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