1042 prisoners to be freed

10 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

The prisons authorities have sent a list of 1042 inmates to the home ministry with recommendations for their release on special consideration, jail officials said. The Department of Prisons will also send around 300 more names of prisoners to the ministry soon, the officials added. The convicts recommended for the release include those who have already served most potions of their sentences and the physically challenged persons. The officials said the prisons department as well as the government took the decision to release these prisoners with two separate views -- one is giving some relief to the overcrowded jails and the other is providing the criminals with chances to be corrected. Golam Haider, deputy inspector general of prisons for Dhaka division, told The Daily Star that they recently sent a list of 1,042 inmates from all 67 jails across the country and another list would be sent soon. "We are analysing the prisoners' files further for sending another list containing more names," the DIG said. "We've just sent the list, but the home ministry would finalise it." Towhidul Islam, senior superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail, said he sent a list of 79 names to the prisons department that forwarded it to the home ministry. Sources said 250 prisoners were released in November last year on a special consideration of the government. Besides, the government every year releases a huge number of prisoners on the occasions of the Independence Day, the Victory Day, Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. According to jail sources there are around 86,000 inmates in 67 jails across the country while the jails have the capacity to contain around 27,000 prisoners.