Prison Reform
The credit for having started the prison reform
movement belongs chiefly to the Englishman John Howard (1726 1790) whose study
of prison life forced a change in the treatment of offenders. The work of
Elizabeth Fry (1780 1845) was also significant as she spent much of her life to
understand the lives of inmates. Similar work was done in the United States by
a group of Philadelphia Quakers, who began agitating for prison reform later.
Their efforts came to a point which ultimately led the United States to lead by
example. The American prison system, now in almost universal use, embodies two
main principles: the separation of prisoners by individual cells, and their
engagement in some form of labor. Later correctional programs in nearly all
parts of world show a significant trend toward specialization, diversification
and experimentation.
The Reform Movement in Pakistan had its beginnings
in the formation of the Punjab Jail Reforms Committee headed by Col H M Salamat
Ullah the then th Inspector General Prisons, the first meeting of which was
convened on the 4 October 1950. The originally two-point agenda of the meeting
was “whether these are certain rules which are derogatory to human
self-respect” and whether the existing rules provide facilities to prisoners
for the discharge of the obligations enjoined by their religion. Later
recommendations on Prison Reforms were brought forward by the same Committee.
The condition of Prisoner's was improved through Punjab Jail Manual of 1955.
The meetings of the following Committees /
Commissions / Conferences were held during the last 50 years:
First Prison Reforms Committee under Col. Salamat
Ullah, Ex-IGP of UP combined India in 1950/1955;
East Pakistan Jail Reform Commission headed by S.
Rehmat Ullah, CSP, Commissioner in 1956;
The West Pakistan Jail Reforms Committee headed by
Mr. Justice S. A. Mahmood (S.Pk.), Retired Judge, High Court of West Pakistan
in 1968- 70
Jail Reforms Conference under Prison Division,
Government of Pakistan in 1972.
Special Committee on Prison Administration headed by
Mr. Muhammad Hayatullah Khan Sumbal, Home Secretary appointed by Governor of
Punjab 1981-83.
Prison Reforms Committee headed by Mr. Mahmud Ali,
Minister of State in 1985;
Jail Reforms Committee headed by Maj Gen (Retd)
Nasirullah Khan Babar, Minister for Interior & Narcotics Control in
1994;
Jail Reforms Committee under Mr. Justice M. Rafique
Tarar, Pak Law Commission headed by Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Chief Justice
of Pakistan in 1997;
Pak Law Commission headed by Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali
Shah, Chief Justice of Pakistan in 1997;
Task Force on Prison Reforms under Mr. Justice Abdul
Qadir Sheikh in 2000;
Meetings held at the national level by M/o Interior
2005 under the Chairmanship of former Minister for Interior Mr. Aftab Ahmed
Khan Sherpao;
In addition meetings were also held under the
Chairmanship of the Principal, Secretary to the Prime Minister and in the
National Reconstruction Bureau, Islamabad with the coordination of Central Jail
Staff Training Institute now upgraded as National Academy for Prison
Administration (NAPA), Lahore.
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