The home department, for the first time in history, has created 621 slots for lady prison police officers and officials, earmarking Rs368 million for the purpose, official documents revealed.
As per details, on the recommendations of the inspector general of prisons police, one slot of lady deputy inspector general prisons in grade 21 and one position of assistant inspector general in grade 19 was created. One slot of lady superintendent jail grade 18, two positions of lady deputy superintendent jail grade 17, two seats of lady additional superintendent jail, and five positions of lady assistant superintendent jail have been created.
Moreover, 85 seats of lady chief warden, 166 seats of lady head warden, and 356 seats of lady warden have been generated.
The total cost of the district jails under the new recruitments, their salaries, allowances, etc. will be Rs228 million for district jails while Rs94 million for central jails.
It is to be recalled that a couple of days ago, the Punjab government approved the prison allowance for all the officials and officers of the prison police.
As per details, Rs100,000 had been approved for the basic pay scale (BPS) 21 officers, Rs95000 per month for grade 20 officers, Rs70,000 for grade 19 officers, Rs60,000 for grade 18 officers and Rs40,000 for grade 17 officers.
Likewise, the allowances were also approved for the lower formations of the jail staff. As per the official sources in the Home Department, there are a total of 753 female prisoners — 278 are convicted, 452 are under trial and 23 are condemned.
There are 121 prisoners housed in Central Jail Lahore, 54 in Central Jail Gujranwala, 140 in Central Jail Rawalpindi, 86 in Central Jail Faisalabad, 25 in Central Jail Jhang, 20 in district jail Shahpur, 29 in each district jail Sialkot and Sahiwal, 16 in district jail Sheikhupura 19 in district jail Gujarat and 18 in district jail Bahawalpur.
Moreover, there are 645 juvenile prisoners in all jails of Punjab — 523 are under trial, while 122 are convicted prisoners. All are male prisoners. As per details, 103 are housed in Bahawalpur jail, 66 in Central Jail Rawalpindi, 64 in Central Jail Faisalabad, 52 in Central Jail Gujranwala, 47 in district jail Sheikhupura, 34 in district jail Lahore and 22 in district jail Toba Tek Singh.
There is an online complaint and redressal system in the prison department. As per details, from February 2021 to June 2022, a total of 779 complaints were received by the authorities on corruption, torture, treatment, etc.
An officer of the home department said there is a strict monitoring system through 4,500 CCTV cameras round the clock. The outgoing Additional Chief Secretary Home Department Syed Ali Murtaza had introduced multiple initiatives for the prisons department.
As per the home department official records, the female prisoners confined in the Punjab jails were kept in the safe and secure environment of female wards. These wards are exclusively managed by the female staff. The Lady deputy superintendent is in charge of the female ward. Female wards have carts, TV sets, and exclusive health facilities — including female doctors, vocational training centres and schools for children accompanying their mothers. Female prisoners are allowed to keep their children with them till they reach six years of age. Hygienic food is being provided to all female prisoners daily. The women medical officers pay special attention to the diet of pregnant female prisoners and recommend a diet to include fresh milk, vegetables and fruits.
