Two inmates at the Borstal Institution and Juvenile Jail in Faisalabad went to dispose of trash after cleaning their barracks as part of their daily routine. A fight broke out between them and escalated, leading to a tragic incident. According to Assistant Superintendent Asad Akbar, Muhammad Mahad, aged 21, struck Sagar Masih, 18, on the head with a brick. Masih succumbed to his injury three days later at Allied Hospital, where he was being treated.

In an interview with The News on Sunday, Assistant Superintendent Akbar said that the incident occurred on November 25. The on-duty prison doctor provided initial medical aid before referring the injured inmate to Allied Hospital for further treatment. “We immediately arranged for a Rescue 1122 ambulance and transferred him to the hospital. Initially, his condition showed signs of improvement. However, it suddenly deteriorated and he passed away,” he said.

Masih’s body was handed over to his family. The police investigation is ongoing. A murder case has been registered at the Khurrianwala Police Station on the complaint of Assistant Superintendent Akbar.

Sub-Inspector Naeem Zia, the investigating officer, says that during the preliminary investigation, the suspect, Muhammad Mahad, confessed to hitting Sagar Masih in anger following a dispute regarding cleaning duties. Responding to a question, the officer said that no evidence of religious hostility had come to light.

“The suspect is already serving a sentence for a previous murder, committed when he was 16 years old. Since he is over 21 now, he may face the death penalty for this killing,” the officer told TNS.

According to police record, Mahad hails from Sangla Hill, a tehsil in Nankana Sahib district. He was convicted in a case registered under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, charged with murder and attempted murder in November 2020. The victim, Sagar Masih, was a resident of Nizampura, a village near Kasur. He was serving a sentence for a conviction in a July 2020 case of child abuse.

Assistant Superintendent Akbar stated that there had been no prior altercations between the two inmates. He disclosed that the Borstal Jail does not have a permanent psychologist to assess or rehabilitate inmates’ mental health. Following this incident, the Central Jail’s psychologist was directed by the DIG Prisons to conduct psychological evaluations of all inmates at the Borstal Institution. “If an inmate needs counselling, suitable arrangements will be made,” he said.

Assistant Superintendent Akbar emphasised that Borstal Jail is a reformative institution, ‘like a boarding school,’ to help rehabilitate young offenders. The staff is not permitted to wear uniforms during duty. Instead, they wear civilian clothing to create a less intimidating environment for the juvenile inmates.

Akbar acknowledged the challenges of rehabilitating juveniles who develop bad habits at an early age. “Such behaviours can become deeply ingrained, making it difficult to reintegrate them as productive members of the society,” he said.

He denied that the incident had occurred due to overcrowding or some security lapse. He said that the prison was operating within its design capacity. “Some children naturally exhibit aggressive tendencies. This incident appears to be a result of the suspect’s foul temperament,” he said.

According to Akbar, the suspect has shown no remorse during the investigation. “His demeanour was unnervingly calm. He was chatting as if nothing important had happened,” he said.

The committee’s observations from various prison visits highlighted significant issues such as staff shortage, overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare, violence against inmates, lack of oversight mechanisms, failure to present under-trial prisoners in court and illegal detentions. The committee noted that prisons are becoming breeding grounds for crime, with increasing cases of abuse, physical and sexual violence; even murder.

According to a report by Justice Project Pakistan, a non-profit organisation that represents the most vulnerable Pakistani prisoners facing the harshest punishments, there is a severe shortage of Borstal institutes or juvenile rehabilitation centres in the Punjab for underage inmates. The report says by November 2023, only 19 per cent of juvenile detainees in the Punjab were housed in Borstal institutes or rehabilitation centres.

Faakhira Irshad, an investigative team leader at Justice Project Pakistan, said that the conditions in Borstal institutions and juvenile jails are not significantly better than those in other prisons. She noted critical gaps in prison laws related to assessing and improving inmates’ mental health, often leading to murders in the prisons.

Irshad said that, in overcrowded prisons, where thousands of inmates are confined and there is only one psychologist, it becomes nearly impossible to address mental health issues effectively. She urged the government to prioritise mental health services, especially for juvenile inmates, by providing individualised psychological care. Such measures, she said, could help rehabilitate young offenders, steering them away from a life of crime and enabling them to become productive members of society.

Thse Punjab currently has only two Borstal institutions and juvenile jails, located in Faisalabad and Bahawalpur, for housing underage offenders. Data from the Prison Department indicates that, as of October 2024, there were 984 juvenile inmates in the province’s 43 prisons, comprising 981 males and three females. Among these, 754 males and three females were under trial, while 227 were convicts. Of these juveniles, 238 were held at Faisalabad’s Borstal Jail, 162 at Bahawalpur’s Borstal Jail, and three female inmates at Kasur District Jail. 581 juvenile detainees were confined in 41 other district and central prisons across the province. Furthermore, 159 children were incarcerated alongside 1,218 female inmates in various prisons across the Punjab.

These figures reveal gaps in the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018, which aims to provide non-custodial measures for juvenile offenders. Despite the Supreme Court’s 2015 suo motu action, which led to recommendations by a committee on prison reforms under than Federal Ombudsman Muhammad Salman Farooqi, the proposed changes have not been fully implemented.

The committee’s observations from various prison visits highlighted significant issues such as staff shortages, overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare, violence against inmates, lack of oversight mechanisms, failure to present under-trial prisoners in court and illegal detentions. The committee had noted that prisons were becoming breeding grounds for crime, with increasing cases of abuse, physical and sexual violence; even murders.

It recommended separating juvenile and first-time offenders from ‘hardened criminals’ and suggested handing over such offenders to their families, community elders or local dignitaries to encourage rehabilitation and better behaviour.

A study titled Review of Unnatural Deaths in Punjab Prisons A Dilemma of Poor Psychiatric Services, published in the Journal of Services Institute of Medical Sciences Lahore, also highlighted these issues. The research revealed that more than 50 prisoners die annually in the Punjab jails. 11 per cent of these deaths are unnatural. Among the unnatural deaths, 49 per cent were due to drug overdose, 21 per cent suicides, 16 per cent murders and 14 per cent accidents. The study said the prisoners undergo no psychological evaluation upon admission and many unnatural deaths could be prevented with timely interventions. It recommended integrating mental health services as a core component of basic healthcare in prisons to address these concerns effectively.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets @naeemahmad876