XV Edition GIZ Law Journal

BANGLADESH

BANGLADESH

GIZ supports first nationwide multi-stakeholder workshop on prisoner rehabilitation in Bangladesh We have not forgottenyou:

To date, nearly 30% of prisoners in Bangladesh are incarcerated on minor drug charges, such as drug abuse. This creates a cycle of short staying people charged with low level offences ending up in a revolving door of prison admission and releases, disrupting their lives and burdening a prison system already straining its capacity. The programme has been working with the Government of Bangladesh to separate where social and early intervention is called for and use incarceration and rehabilitation more selectively. It has managed to establish partnerships between prison authorities and specialist drugs referral and rehabilitation centres. Through this partnership, 11,363 prisoners received skills development training, and 9,737 drug dependents prisoners were referred for counselling and medical support. Additional extensive support was also provided to released prisoners, 150 of them have received needs-based equipment and materials to secure their livelihoods, including sewing machines, rickshaws and other items. As part of Covid-19 response measures, emergency kits were also distributed to 3,531 released prisoners to facilitate their safe return to their homes, including food, health and hygiene materials. Extensive works were also carried out to increase capacities of Prisons staff on basic drug treatment and management and has reached a total of 414 persons. The trainings were delivered by NGO Dhaka Ahsania Mission that has also brought forward increased cooperation of the prisons with the non-governmental sector to jointly address existing challenges.

By: Promita Sengupta

Support to rehabilitation of prisoners in Bangladesh Since 2014 multi-stakeholder workshop titled “We have not forgotten you – Pathways for Rehabilitation of Prisoners” , GIZ Bangladesh/Rule of Law programme has managed to further enhance inter-institutional cooperation and deepen policy dialogue between the different actors in the Government of Bangladesh and non-governmental organizations to improve the real situation of prisoners that remains challenging. The commitment to take extensive measures for rehabilitation of prisoners now constitutes one of the key elements of the 8th Five-Year Plan, the country’s key national development strategy. The Government of Bangladesh has also committed EUR 9 million to support the work of the paralegals and rehabilitation of prisoners. These developments and commitments are especially important because prisons in Bangladesh are housing over 83,000 prisoners when the actual capacity is 43,000. They are overcrowded with 77% remand prisoners (under-trial) of whom it is estimated 90% will not be convicted of an offence. The situation is further exacerbated by high recidivism rate of prisoners caused by the lack of rehabilitation measures and social reintegration measures. Given these challenges in place, GIZ Bangladesh/Rule of Law programme continues to provide comprehensive support to all the stakeholders to improve the rehabilitation of prisoners and ex-prisoners, as per priorities identified in the aforementioned 8th Five-Year plan. The support ranges from the provision of technical assistance to the drafting of laws and regulations to delivering capacity building activities to relevant partners. In this regard, extensive support was rendered to the drafting of the Prison and Correctional Services Act that aims at transforming the prisons from punitive institutions to correctional facilities which will reduce recidivism by fostering better rehabilitation and social reintegration of convicted prisoners. It has recently been finalized by the drafting Committee and sent to the Ministry of Law to undertake steps for enactment. Further technical assistance was also provided to the drafting of sentencing guidelines to encourage judges not to impose the maximum imprisonment sentence for offences by default and to establish consistent sentencing between courts.

Arslan Sabyrbekov

“The stigmatization of prisoners through society leads to an exclusion and therefore mostly to reoffending. I am trying to return their dignity and self esteem. In my case I teach them dancing. We can proudly say that, from our students, an insignificant minority is reoffending. I strongly believe that every society has to give a person a second chance! Everybody deserves a second chance!” Alokananda Roy, Dance Therapist, Jailbirds Dance Project, Kolkata, India and Keynote Speaker on the National Multistakeholder Workshop “We have not forgotten you – Pathways to Rehabilitation of Prisoners”, Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 6-7

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