Editorial
Not solely a law and order issue
A band of five robbers, impersonating as members of the 10th Rapid Action Battalion, forced their way into the residence of a jeweller at Hazaribagh in the capital and took away Tk 22 lakh in cash and valuables early Saturday morning. Less than 24 hours before that, in the early hours of Friday, a mobile telephone shop at an Uttara shopping complex was robbed of Tk 5 lakh in cash and cellular phone sets. The same day, in the span of a few hours, armed muggers robbed a woman of cash and cell phone set at Khilgaon, and a hotel employee was shot at Malibagh. A few hours back, on Thursday night, a man was shot dead on the Dakkshin Kajla Nayanagar Road at Jatrabari. Put together, we have at least five incidents of street and organised crimes in the capital city alone in the space of 36 hours or so. There is a clear pattern here for all, especially the authorities, to see, i.e. the crime curve has started an upward climb.
While alarmed, we are not quite surprised by the sudden upswing of crime. In fact, we believe it is bound to happen, today or tomorrow. Let us explain why. After its assumption of office under a state of emergency, one of the first things that the military-driven government did was pull down illegal structures and remove makeshift shops on roadsides and pavements across the country. The immediate effect of the government’s action was that hundreds of thousands of people found themselves homeless and jobless almost overnight. While the government has been slow in arranging alternative housing or source of income for them, the price spiral of essential commodities has shown little sign of letting up. Moreover, the sustained anti-corruption drive by the joint forces has induced a pervasive fear among the businesspeople, from large-scale entrepreneurs to small-time traders, making them hesitant to make any investment towards expansion of their respective ventures, which means employment generation has virtually ground to a halt. To top it off, the government has been persistent with its plan to downsize the public sector, resulting in further job cuts.
Now, we have a situation where we have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who have no jobs and no source of income. In such a dreadful scenario, it is only inevitable that some of these desperate people would resort to crime for sustenance. The government would be wrong to treat the sudden surge in crime solely as a law and order issue because it is not. If viewed as individual episodes, and not part of a greater social problem, soon the entire situation could snowball into a crisis of an unmanageable scale. Therefore, the government would be well-advised to immediately focus on rehabilitation of the people who have lost their jobs and, at the same time, try its utmost to rein in the prices of essentials, so that the denied and deprived lot does not resort to desperate measures like crime in their desperation to survive.
Govt continues to flout court
order on child prisoners
On 2003, the High Court issued directives to the government that juvenile prisoners should not be kept in jail but transferred to correction homes. It is 2007 and the directive is yet to be implemented while more than four hundred children languish in jail making a mockery to the ruling of the highest court of the country. The issue has been raised in the media and in this paper over and over again but, as we learn from the New Age report of July 8, no step has yet been taken as yet. As the authorities keep on violating the court’s order, those children are kept crammed in jails in the most unsuitable of environments and in the company of hardened criminals decimating whatever chance they have of getting rehabilitated to society as normal, law-abiding citizens.
Everybody knows how horrendous the prisons are in our country, how the inmates are stuffed there way beyond the capacity, not to speak of the poor health and hygiene conditions. These jails are a dreaded place even for adult criminals; one may well imagine how terrible an effect it has on a child’s psyche. Psychiatrists and experts have time and again discussed what negative effects these prisons can have over young minds and how they are often subjected to physical, mental and sexual harassment by older inmates, and the necessity for transferring young criminals to correction centres.
It is quite clear that a gross abuse of justice has been done to the children. Maybe the higher judiciary should once again take notice of the circumstances and instruct the authority to act immediately. It is also worth investigating how the authorities can keep on flouting the High Court’s directive and that too for such a long time is worth investigating. There is always the possibility that that paper work has not allowed the necessary job to be done. After all, there is so much of red tape in the country that hardly anything worthwhile gets done in due time.
The authorities’ absolute indifference towards the rule of law and the future generation can no way be accepted. They must change their insensitive attitude and act immediately. It is not only the duty of the government to transfer the juvenile criminals of different jails to correction centres with utmost haste, it is its obligation.
Tomorrow wanes in today’s indifference
It is not only the duty of the government to transfer the juvenile criminals of different jails to correction centres with utmost haste but it is its legal obligation to do so. The authorities must change their insensitive attitude and act immediately. On a different note, the authorities must also monitor the activities of the correction centres so that young offenders can correct themselves, get rehabilitated and lead a normal life, writes Sonia Kristy
IN THE 57 jails across the country, there are more than four hundred juvenile prisoners passing their days in a most deplorable manner. These children are not supposed to be there. They should be in correction centres where they are to be rehabilitated so that they can return to society as peace-loving, law-abiding citizens. The highest court of the country issued this directive four years ago but till today these young prisoners are suffering and leading their life in uncertainty as the directive is yet to be implemented.
Violation of a court order is nothing new in Bangladesh but rather commonplace. But when a High Court directive remains unheeded for four long years, it not only questions the government’s sincerity about establishing the rule of law but also brings out in the open, in the most glaring manner, how thin the line is that differentiates the authorities and those detained for criminal acts.
On April 9 2003, a High Court bench comprising Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury and Justice Nizamul Haque issued a seven-point directive to the government, spelling out in clear terms that juvenile prisoners should not be kept in jail but transferred to correction homes and other approved centres. It also recommended that the prison authorities should submit weekly reports on juvenile inmates, that the age of any children in custody should be mentioned, that probation officers be informed of the juvenile detainees, that the officer-in-charge of a particular police station should be held accountable for any increase in the number of juvenile detainees in his or her area of jurisdiction, that the national taskforce and district taskforces should be strengthened so as to deliver justice to the juveniles and that workshops should be held for magistrates in order to implement the Children Act 1974.
Four years have passed since then and a number of suo moto rules have been issued against the government but nothing has been done to mitigate the plight of these children. ‘It is a clear violation of law and the verdict of the High Court. It is indeed very unfortunate that children are still being kept in prison even four years after the High Court verdict keeping the development centres practically deserted,’ said Nijamul Haque, one of the two judges who delivered the seven-point directive said when venting his frustration over the issue (New Age, April 9).
In our country the law permits children, aged below six years of age, only to be kept in prison along with their inmate mothers. Other than them all children are to be transferred to correction homes and the High Court directive was clear on this matter. But according to sources in the national taskforce, 811 children were released from different prisons across the country in the first five months of this year while 801 were sent to prisons (New Age, July 8). It reveals how nonchalant the authorities have been about following the court order in transferring the juvenile inmates from the prison to state-run juvenile development centres. The absence of juvenile courts and lack of knowledge and training on juvenile justice and related laws, including the Children Act 1974, are primarily responsible for children languishing in the prisons, explained the juvenile justice expert Shah Deen Malik and national taskforce member Habibun Nessa (New Age, July 8).
Four years ago when the High Court clearly told the prison authorities that, ‘juvenile accused are to be transferred to correction homes and other approved homes with utmost expedition’ and ‘juvenile accused in jails must be kept apart from other prisoners’, the media and the saner section of society hailed the decision. But the waiting period has turned out to be too long.
Children cannot and should not be crammed into the same cell with adult prisoners. The condition that prevails in the prisons in Bangladesh make it all the more necessary to transfer the young prisoners on a most urgent basis. Our jails are anything but a place for children. We admit that prison conditions cannot be expected to be ideal, but the environment there should at least be tolerable. Our prisons are anything but that. These places are crammed with five times more inmates than there should be and the authorities concerned have not done anything to expand the cells or increase the number of prisons. The health and hygiene conditions there are pathetic — food served unpalatable, toilet condition dreadful, so on and so forth. There are also crimes galore within the prison walls, in some cases with the help of a section of corrupt jail officials and staff. There are even allegations that illegal drugs are easily available there. There are also stories of how hardened criminals run their crime syndicates from inside the prisons. Studies have revealed that many adolescents turn into hardened criminals after going through the rigour of the prison life. It is alleged that they are subjected to physical, mental and sexual harassment by older inmates. It is quite often the case that when these adolescents are released they turn into mental patients as well as hard criminals, and find it difficult to adjust with others in society. Child psychiatrists and experts have time and again discussed the negative effects these prisons can have over young minds. When prisons are such dreary places to be, imagine what those children and adolescents go through in there. It is true the government has long been planning prison reforms, but only in paper as it seems.
As these children rot in jail, more than four hundred seats in the three state-run juvenile development centres and six safe homes remain vacant. However, the state of these correction centres is anything but suitable for rehabilitation. According to news reports, these centres are ‘ill-managed and manned by unskilled staff, prompting many inmates to flee the centres’ (New Age, June 10).
It is not only the duty of the government to transfer the juvenile criminals of different jails to correction centres with utmost haste but it is its legal obligation to do so. The authorities must change their insensitive attitude and act immediately. On a different note, the authorities must also monitor the activities of the correction centres so that young offenders can correct themselves, get rehabilitated and lead a normal life.
The juvenile prisoners, given their tender age, have all the potential to become exemplary citizens and thus should be allowed every opportunity to realise that potential. The system that compels them to become hardened criminals instead of creating that opportunity for them is in no way less barbaric or criminal than the worst offenders.
A state that fails to secure a reasonably decent life for its children, a state that is not committed to their future will without fail be unable to secure a peaceful or happy life for society in general. Successive governments have shown the utmost disregard towards the welfare of children, who are very much part of the future of Bangladesh. The current military-driven interim government continues the tradition that its preceding regimes began, something it has time and again pledged to change. It is time the words are followed up by deeds.
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