KATHMANDU, Sept 6: The government's treatment of prisoners in Nepal is highly problematic, with the Central Jail at Sundhara facing extreme overcrowding issues and a decaying infrastructure that puts inmates at risk. The work started for years to expand the prison capacity has been stopped by the government's decision. After the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's government decided to transform the Central Jail into a museum in the fiscal year 2018/19, the expansion project was stopped.
Although the addition of structures inside the prison has been started, it has been abruptly stopped with the decision of the government. Apart from maintenance, the prison administration has not been able to add any new structures within the prison that covers over 63 ropanis of land.
According to Ganesh Karmacharya, the chief of the Intensive Urban Development and Building Construction project in Kathmandu, an agreement was reached on January 1, 2019 to add 6 blocks to the central jail at a cost of Rs 368.9 million. An agreement was reached to build barracks for the police, two blocks for female prisoners and two blocks for male prisoners. “The Steering Committee of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) told us in writing not to build a block of Bhadragol Jail. Being the oldest structure, it had to be demolished and rebuilt. Although the three blocks were completed and handed over, the work of the three blocks inside the Bhadragol Jail was stalled. Now we are confused whether to break the agreement with the contractor at that time or to continue," Karmacharya said.
Although there is an urgent need to increase the capacity of Central Jail Hospitals and Jails, the inmates are having difficulty due to extreme negligence and neglect of the state. Due to the lack of new structures, the prison stay is becoming difficult for the prisoners and detainees as they have to live in the old jail. This has adversely affected their quality of life, access to entertainment, nutrition, education, skill development, and income opportunities. Overcrowding in the prison has increased the problems of mental health, access to health care, drinking water etc.
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The Central Jail has a capacity for only 1,500 people, but it currently holds 3,488 prisoners, including 255 from different countries. The construction of the new prison, which was started seven years ago at Bidur Municipality in Nuwakot, intended to alleviate the overcrowding in the Central Jail, remains incomplete despite starting seven years ago. Even though Federal project Office of Urban Development and Building Construction, Dhading started construction from the year 2073 at a cost of Rs 12 billion, the deadline has been extended for the sixth time with fines to the contractor. According to the engineers of the Urban Development and Building Construction, While 70 percent of the building work is complete, challenges remain in achieving the October completion deadline.
Due to the delay of the contractor, the prisoners did not get a chance to be transferred to a comfortable prison. Prison chief Lalit Basnet said that although there is a plan to complete the Nuwakot jail on time and transfer the inmates of the central jail, the slow phase is causing problems in the management. Prisoners and detainees are added daily but there is no space to keep them. We are forced to keep prisoners and detainees by adding beds in temporary towers, the situation is complicated," said Basnet, the chief of the prison.
Every day, 200 prisoners and detainees from all over the country come for treatment in the 30-bed hospital within the Central Jail. The prison administration says that the number of inmates is increasing because they have to stay there for treatment until their recovery. According to the Department of Prison Management (DoPM), the population of prisoners and detainees is increasing by six percent annually.
Physical and mental problems have started to appear in them due to keeping more prisoners than their capacity. Human services and protection of human rights of prisoners and detainees is the responsibility of the state, but the government is not sensitive and serious towards them. Although the government made a policy arrangement to build a hospital with facilities of up to 100 beds in prisons with more than 500 prisoners, the decision of the then Council of Ministers is hindering the implementation.
The contract to construct two buildings for the hospital, external and surgical, at a cost of Rs 70 million, was advanced by the DoPM. But the Chief Medical Superintendent of the Central Prison Hospital, Dr Prakash Budhathoki said, with the increase in the number of patients in the hospital, the plan to develop the capacity and increase it to 100 beds has also been put on hold.
Chief Karmacharya said that the construction of the three blocks of the prison, which has already been agreed upon, will be carried out by the intensive urban and building construction project. 200 security personnel are inside the prison to protect the prisoners and detainees. The police who are assigned to guard the prison are also serving in a temporary tower because the structure is not sufficient.
There is also a lack of clean drinking water in the Central Jail. Melamchi's drinking water has not reached the prison yet. According to the prison administration, expenses are also high because of having to arrange drinking water from tankers, costing Rs 6 million annually on drinking water alone.
Due to the pressure of prisoners and detainees, only a few have got jobs like skill development and other employment generating opportunities.
In the Prisons Act 2019 BS, there is a provision to keep the detainees or prisoners in separate places for men and women, and to keep the prisoners of civil and criminal cases separately. Similarly, arrangements have been made to keep seriously ill patients and mentally ill patients separately. There is a provision to keep prisoners, senior citizens and detainees in different places. But due to the lack of expansion of prison capacity, the provisions of the Act could not be implemented, said Chief Basnet.
