In Pakistan, prisons are notoriously crowded, making physical distancing and other public health recommendations impossible to implement, a recent Amnesty International report suggests. They lack adequate health-care facilities and have unsanitary conditions, accelerating the spread of infectious diseases. These and other underlying systemic issues lead to a catalogue of human rights violations, including the violations of the right to life and the right to health, guaranteed by in the constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations. The pandemic has exposed the dire straits that Pakistan’s prisons find themselves in, beholden to scarcity and defined by crowding.

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, prisons were identified early on as places where outbreaks were likely and would require urgent government attention. The report Prisoners of Pandemic is the outcome of research carried out between August 1 and September 20 by Amnesty International and Lahore-based human rights group Justice Project Pakistan (JPP). The JPP conducted on-site investigations in six prison facilities and held 22 interviews with prison authorities, medical personnel, prisoners and newly released prisoners. Amnesty International consolidated the findings.

By August 2020, at least 2,313 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19 in Pakistani jails. According to the government, there have been three deaths. Some rights bodies claim that there have been more deaths than that, but they have no evidence on account of lack of access to information. The report finds that there was a continued intake of prisoners with minimal precautions to prevent transmissions. While recognising that a range of offences warrant arrest and detention, and that Covid-19 should not provide cover to those who commit those crimes, the overuse of incarceration for minor offences is problematic in the context of a pandemic. Despite a ruling from the Islamabad High Court to reduce the number of unnecessary arrests, no official steps were announced to reduce prisoner intake or the pace of arrests for petty crimes. Compounding the problem of overcrowding during the Covid-19 outbreak, a lockdown imposed from April to June – followed by court holidays – also forced courts to severely limit operations. As fewer bail hearings were taking place, the period between April and August actually saw a rise in overall prison populations from 73,242 to 79,603, representing an 8.7 percent increase. Several prison officials told the JPP that the suspension of court operations was a great obstacle to curbing the Covid-19 spread in prisons as no new releases could be ordered, overwhelming the already burgeoning prisons.

In the interviews many prisoners highlighted the lack of preventive and protective measures during the initial detention phase in police stations. Personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, was not always provided, or even worn by the police who were arresting them. Some detainees reported being kept in confined spaces with many others – preventing the possibility of distancing – and said they were not told about any precautionary measures. The report found that there were different screening and admission practices at different prisons. Quarantine times varied from five to 14 days and health check-ups seemed to have been based on an oral history assessment and a self-declaration health form.

Crowding in prisons is a long-standing problem that has been ignored by all levels of governments for years. The Covid-19 outbreak just exposed how precarious the conditions in prisons are, and threats that these pose to the lives and health of both prisoners and prison staff. The outbreak demonstrated to the Pakistani authorities the urgency with which they must address these systemic issues, ease the strain on the prison infrastructure and address long-standing human rights violations that take place behind prison walls every day. Instead, prison populations actually rose during the first few months of the pandemic, exacerbating the problem of crowding, which only makes it harder to maintain physical distance. In Pakistan, the police arrest practices and institutional reluctance to use non-custodial sentences create the environment for the unconscionable overcrowding rate of 134 percent in prisons. People are held for months in pre-trial detention, waiting to appear in courts mired in backlogs. As a result, the risk of contagion with a communicable disease such as Covid-19 is significantly heightened.

The 13-week long ban on visitation worsened inmates’ living conditions and mental health, depriving them of access to external supplies of food and essential medication and isolating them from their loved ones. Overstretched prison officials and staff were unable to go on a leave, worked extra hours for no pay and had to live on prison premises.

The rationale for testing prisoners also varied from prison to prison. Amnesty International is concerned about the lack of transparency in the official reporting of cases in the Punjab. Testing figures had to be obtained through a right to information (RTI) request after prison authorities abruptly stopped reporting cases once the number hit 86 on April 26. According to the response to the RTI, a total of 16,534 tests were conducted for prisoners in all of the Punjab from March to September. These figures were not shared with the public.

To reduce existing prison populations, Amnesty International and Justice Project Pakistan have called upon the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience who are solely detained for the peaceful exercise of their human rights; strongly consider releasing pre-trial detainees, whether detained in a police station or in a detention centre after an order by a judge (remand), unless strong factors weigh against it, in accordance with international law; and compile and submit lists of prisoners at risk who can be eligible for early, temporary or conditional release, based on age, their health condition, the nature of the offence committed, the threat they pose to society, and the duration of sentence served. The report also calls for considering releasing prisoners with underlying medical conditions, including those with a weakened immune system, due to the exacerbated risks infection with Covid-19 would bring to their health and lives; and immediately implement the prime minister’s directives to release women prisoners who are under trial, convicted of minor offences or those who have served most of their prison terms around the country.

Among other recommendations, the report urges the government to develop and enact a policy and action plan to respond to ongoing and future outbreaks of infectious diseases; be transparent about the number of infections, testing and fatalities; and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and install a National Preventive Mechanism in accordance with it, with the ability to carry out unhindered and unannounced visits to all places of detention.

Pakistan has an obligation, under domestic law and international human rights law, to protect the rights of people deprived of their liberty, including during pandemics and public health emergencies. Pakistan has already ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that makes the obligation of states to fulfil the right to health for prisoners explicit; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Mandela Rules also offer a detailed framework for what is expected from authorities in a health crisis. The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued explicit guidance to manage the Covid-19 outbreak in prisons and other places of detention including screenings, restricted visitation, quarantine protocols and the process to follow if prisoners are transferred.

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