After years of neglect, prisons across the country are about to witness a change for the better. Rights watch organisations and individuals have long been pressing for prison reforms in Nepal. Thousands of prisoners live in crammed jails and often under inhuman conditions. However, the Prison Management Department is now drafting a Prison Management Strategy to improve the way prisons are run. The draft paves the path for involvement of NGOs as well as the civil society in forwarding the cause of penal reforms. The country’s 72 jails function under minimal infrastructure. The draft has identified this weakness as the main factor behind the dismal state of prisons. More importantly, they lack rehabilitation schemes for the inmates. Convicts are relegated to prisons not only to seclude the offenders from perpetuating another crime, but also to bring about a transformation in their character, so that they emerge out of the prisons more enlightened about the benefits of social reintegration. For this, the inmates must be treated as citizens deserving rights and respects and not the enemy of the State.

There is a universal ethical framework on running prisons, based on Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Even though a prison curbs the liberty of free movement, it is the State’s responsibility to ensure that every prisoner is treated in a dignified manner. However, the only people who can ensure this is the sentry who looks after the inmates. As a result, those policemen and other staff who are assigned to work with prisoners must ensure that the rights of the inmates are respected. In ensuring this, the State must adopt measures to curb malpractice, which prisons have been long accused of. Kiran Bedi’s transformation of the Tihar Jail in India from one of the most notorious prisons in India to a civilian institution, perhaps, would have lessons for penal reforms in Nepal too.

Very few of the 6,000-odd prisoners in Nepal are hardcore criminals. In other words, this lot is in prison for petty offences and would be released from jails sooner than later. But Nepal is no stranger to prisoners overstaying their sentences. Several single women jailed for both minor and major offences live with their progenies in jails. There are no correction measures for such mothers, far less education and other facilities for their children. The Prison Management Strategy must address these problems besides the perpetual neglect in health and hygiene of the prisoners. Even more serious is the problem of prisoners awaiting trials. Several women remain behind bars even after abortion was legalised for over two years. The Strategy would be incomplete without measures to address all of these concerns.