The horrors of Adiala Jail

Adiala Jail houses more than 5,000 underprivileged prisoners and covers a large area but suffers from a host of problems including substandard and unhygienic food and water besides poor accommodation arrangements. Prisoners are deprived of clean water and are served substandard food, which has led to a breakout of several diseases amongst inmates. At least 100 patients were said to be suffering from infectious diseases in the second week of December. Witnesses said that usually more than a hundred inmates would suffer from different diseases and were left unattended unless there was an emergency.
Inmates were made to pay Rs 3,000 every month for the provision of basic facilities in the jail. All kinds of drugs including heroin, hashish and opium, were available in the prison. Privileged prisoners could also use mobile phones with the connivance of corrupt prison officials.
Prisoners are humiliated several times during their incarceration however one of the worst forms of humiliation is the ‘mulahizah’ (presentation), where they are presented before the jail superintendent. Every prisoner is made to stand in front of the superintendent and shout out his name, his father’s name and the crime committed, while being beaten up by the jail staff.
A new form of torture is where prisoners on trial or those on judicial remand are thrown into cells with drug addicts or dacoits and are shifted to other cells with less dangerous criminals when they bribe jail officials. Relatives of these prisoners undergo different forms of humiliation as they are taunted and asked to pay bribes if they want to hand edibles or other items to their loved ones. “Hate the crime not the criminal” is boldly written on the main wall of every cell in the prison but the prisoners said, “In Adiala Jail criminals are hated more than the crime, instead of reforming the mentality of prisoners the jail staff turns them into hardcore criminals”.