DefinePK

Abstract

Prison system rendering its services world widely to decrease the recidivism rate and to keep the society safe from the hardened offenders. It also aims to rehab the offenders by providing them correctional programs like vocational skills, education, counselling to build their personality so they can contribute productively in the society, but accomplishing the desired objectives especially for the underdeveloped countries have become idealistic and Pakistan is not an exception in this regard. This research work is restricted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prisons including sub jails of newly merged districts in order to evaluate the living conditions of the prisoners and to identify issues of staff in the pursuance of their service. To fulfill the desired objectives formal approval was taken from the IG Prisons and message was circulated to all the 13 prisons which include 5 central prisons and 8 sub jails of NMDs covered in this study by the deputy director prisons to allow the researcher to take interviews. Data was collected from 01 respondent of each prison belong to the executive branch of the prison staff through purposive sampling technique. Interview guide was adopted as a data collection tool. It was found that there is no capacity for female prisoners and juveniles in the sub jails of tribal districts due to lack of space, female staff and security and they are shifted to the nearest central prison for confinement. There was lack of medical officers, psychologists and eventually patients were checked by pharmacy technician which was a sort of formality. Other challenges include poor hygienic conditions; lack of recreational activities; no regular school classes and teacher. In addition, prison staff were also facing multifarious problems which includes but not restricted to lack of proper living facilities as most of the staff was non-locals so they had one room in sub jails which was their office as well as kitchen and bed room. They don’t have cook and were living in a very unhygienic environment. They have posting issues and were far away from their native town. Lastly, training academy at Haripur prison is at the verge of its functioning, but still government shall allocate the budget for the academy to equip it with the trainers, tool and resources in order to provide professional training to the prison staff to improve their service delivery.||Keywords: Prison System, Prisoners, Newly Merged Districts, Training Academy, Lack of Resources, Correctional Programmes.