This news belongs to Ripley’s believe it or not category. If you are lodged in Dhaka Central Jail, you need to spend around Tk 30,000 a month, says a report in The Daily Star. This money is towards food and other basic necessities, which the state is expected to provide for free.
And this amount is more than some families living in the Bangladesh capital spend every month, the dispatch tells. The services available for a price range from sleeping space to sufficient water for latrines for a price, the daily reported after talking to three prisoners who had walked out to freedom.
In case the convicts cannot cough up for the services, life becomes hell. It is as much a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the jail as on the market economy most developing countries have embraced these days.
Dhaka central jail is the premier prison of Bangladesh. It is overcrowded by all means like most prisons in third world countries. In a sense, the Dhaka Central jail is not alone with its unique system of priced services.
In the Pakistani jails which are no less crowded, the authorities are known to facilitate services like mobile phones to those who come under the category of non-state actors. One such actor is known to have become a father with his wife allowed to visit him in the night.
Yes, by no stretch of imagination, the situation in Pak and Bangladesh jails is on the same page. But it shows the malady that needs to be addressed.
Now some excerpts from The Daily Star report on Dhaka jail:
• A major portion of the inmates’ money goes to the convicts who are given the charge by the jail authority to look after other prisoners.
• A prisoner has to spend Tk 300 to Tk 1,500 to see his or her family, in which one is allowed to talk to family members in a room through a window.
• The jail staff at the gate charge Tk 200 for sending every Tk 1,000 to an inmate. So, actually a prisoner gets Tk 800 for every Tk 1,000 his or her family sends.
• Each prisoner has to manage the amount to enjoy the minimum rights he or she is entitled to enjoy inside the jail as per the Bangladesh Jail Code.
• Horrific sufferings await those who are unable to manage the amount.