Many prisoners awaiting trial cannot afford lawyer

Two-thirds of the inmates in the country’s prisons are awaiting trial and most of them are languishing in jails as they are too poor to afford a lawyer, official documents placed in an inter-ministerial meeting disclosed on Thursday.
The meeting decided to allow legal aid officers to visit prisons across the country to find out the prisoners awaiting trial without access to legal assistance.
Law minister Anisul Huq chaired the inter-ministerial meeting on the improvement of the overcrowding prisons and expansion of legal aid services at the ministry.
‘The meeting decided that the legal aid officers would be allowed to visit the jails across the country with the district judges and the district magistrates so that they could identify the prisoners awaiting trial having no access to legal services,’ said a senior official at the law ministry who attended the meeting.
The legal aid officers from the National Legal Aid Services Organisation would provide them with legal aid services, said the officer.
He said that the government would ensure legal assistance to all the prisoners awaiting trial.
There are over 70,000 prisoners in the 68 jails of the country against a capacity of 34,000, according to the prison authority.
The meeting was informed that 2.7 million cases were pending with the courts and the prisons remained overcrowded with prisoners under trial.
Anisul said that many people still were not aware of the free legal aid services being provided by the government in each district, particularly to those who could not afford a lawyer, according to officials who attended the meeting.
The minister also underlined the need for steps to improve the overall situation of the overcrowded jails and more allocations for better food and other facilities for the inmates.
Anisul, also a lawyer by profession, told the meeting that initiatives should be taken to expand the activities of the National Legal Aid Services Organisation and make people know about the organisation having activities in all the districts with 23 permanent offices.
Home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan and senior officials from the home ministry, the law ministry and the Directorate of Prisons, among others, attended the meeting.
The press briefing scheduled for after the meeting was cancelled as both the ministers refused to talk to the media over the matter.
The officials observed that there were too many prisoners and they were languishing in prison for long time even many of them for petty crimes. Once released, many faced homelessness, health problems or drug addiction, said the officials.
Low rate of conviction proved that many of the prisoners were facing false cases, said a senior official.
The meeting identified criminal investigations overwhelming the police capacity, growing case backlog in courts, prisons overcrowded with prisoners under trial and low rate of conviction as major problems in the prison management and criminal justice system.
In 2008, the home affairs ministry initiated a project for the improvement of the Real Situation of Overcrowding in Prisons in Bangladesh and in 2013, the law ministry took another project for Justice Reform and Corruption Prevention.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net