Punjab Chief Minister’s Task Force on Prisons Chairman Rana Manan Khan on Thursday chaired a meeting at the Home Department to review progress on the prison reforms agenda, including healthcare, education, welfare facilities, construction of new prisons and security arrangements.
CM’s Task Force reviews prison reforms, welfare initiatives
LAHORE, Aug 13 (APP): Punjab Chief Minister’s Task Force on Prisons Chairman Rana Manan Khan on Thursday chaired a meeting at the Home Department to review progress on the prison reforms agenda, including healthcare, education, welfare facilities, construction of new prisons and security arrangements.
Inspector General Prisons Mian Salik Jalal, Additional Secretary Prisons Roman Burana, DIG Prisons Shaukat Feroz, Chief Psychologist Prisons Sadia Zafar and other officials attended the meeting.
The meeting was briefed that under the Chief Minister’s Prison Health Programme, every prisoner undergoes medical tests and psychological assessment upon admission to jail.
So far, health screening of 96,110 prisoners had been completed, while 107,851 prisoners underwent psychological assessment and screening from January to June.
The meeting was further informed that the Chief Minister’s Literacy Programme had been launched across Punjab prisons to provide education to inmates, with 11,968 prisoners having received education so far.
For the welfare and convenience of prisoners, Chief Minister’s Prison Welfare Stores had also been established in all jails. The stores had received 161,489 visits, with purchases worth Rs306 million made so far.
The meeting also reviewed progress on the construction of new women’s prisons in Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, besides a plan to increase prisoner capacity through the construction of new prisons and additional barracks across Punjab.
Chairman Rana Manan said measures were being taken to reform prisoners by providing them with a better environment and opportunities for training and rehabilitation.
He said citizens could book jail visits online from their homes through the “Mulaqat App”, adding that more than 60,000 citizens had so far visited prisoners through the application.
He said a modern system had been introduced for the sale of products manufactured by prisoners in prison industries, enabling their hard work to be converted into economic support.
The chairman said that after Faisalabad, Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan, Central Jail Lahore was also being shifted to solar energy.
Manan directed the authorities to complete the installation of modern cameras and other security equipment in prisons across Punjab under the Safe Jail Project at the earliest.
