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RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 0929
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DHAKA 001584 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PINR BG
SUBJECT: INSPECTOR GENERAL OF PRISONS DESCRIBES CURRENT 
PRISON CONDITIONS 
 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Geeta Pasi, reason 1.4(d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY. The Inspector General of Prisons, Brigadier 
General Md Zakir Hasan, recently discussed current jail 
conditions with POLOFF, and described his efforts to reform 
the prison system in Bangladesh.  According to Hasan, the 
total prison population in Bangladesh (including those in 
jail awaiting trial, but not those detained in police 
stations) is approximately 86,100, which is 3.5 times greater 
than the country's maximum prison capacity.  He touched on 
the incarcerations of U.N. Special Rapporteur and human 
rights activist Sigma Huda, as well as former prime ministers 
Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the 
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). END SUMMARY. 
 
================= 
PROGRAM OF REFORM 
================= 
 
¶2. (SBU) Brigadier General Md Zakir Hasan, the Inspector 
General of Prisons, recently discussed prison conditions and 
his ongoing reform of the prison system with POLOFF.  As the 
top Bangladesh government official overseeing the prison 
system, Hasan runs a network of 67 prisons across the 
country.  He assumed his position in 2005.  Prior to his 
appointment, the Inspector General position was traditionally 
held by a military officer from the medical corps.  Hasan is 
the first infantry officer to hold the job. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Hasan provided statistics on the current prison 
population.  He said he receives daily reports on how many 
prisoners have entered and departed the system, and that the 
current total number of prisoners that day was about 88,500. 
This number has been relatively stable for several months, 
after having risen from 72,000 at the beginning of the state 
of emergency in January. Between 1,150 and 1,200 prisoners 
enter and leave the system every day. (NOTE: These statistics 
match estimates by the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement 
of Human Rights and the Bangladesh office of the 
International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent 
Societies. END NOTE.) 
 
¶4. (SBU) The prison population is currently 3.5 times over 
its maximum capacity of 27,000.  Hasan has sought to shift 
prisoners around to relieve the most crowded jails, in Dhaka 
and other major cities, but it can be difficult because 
prisoners often must appear in court in the city where they 
were convicted.  Hasan hopes to increase the prison capacity 
by several thousands slots this year, and will be 
inaugurating a new prison in Chuaganga in northwestern 
Bangladesh in the middle of September. 
 
=================================== 
REHABILITATION, NOT JUST PUNISHMENT 
=================================== 
 
¶5. (SBU) According to Hasan, when he took over the prison 
system in 2005 corruption was rampant, prisoners were 
routinely abused, and prison employees' morale was abysmal. 
"My first thought was that prisons cannot be punishment 
centers, they have to be rehabilitation centers," he said. 
He said he noticed quickly that the prisons held not just bad 
people, but also many victims of circumstance, poorly 
educated people, and political prisoners who were involved in 
local disputes.  "My job, as I saw it, was to rehabilitate 
them since these people are still a segment of society." 
 
============================= 
A POORLY RUN PRISON SYSTEM... 
============================= 
 
¶6. (SBU) Hasan said he saw firsthand major problems in the 
way the prisons were being run.  There was no mutual respect, 
either amongst prisoners or between prison employees, and 
training for guards was non-existent.  Prisoners had to bribe 
the guards for the rations they were entitled to, and were 
routinely placed in "bar-fitters" (a bar that connects 
ankle-cuffs and hand-cuffs) which were supposed to be 
reserved only for transporting prisoners. The only training 
given to prisoners was weaving and producing cheap cane 
 
DHAKA 00001584  002 OF 003 
 
 
furniture. 
 
====================== 
IN DIRE NEED OF REFORM 
====================== 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Inspector General described a series of reforms 
he has initiated since 2005.  He introduced several measures 
aimed at improving employee training and morale, including 
introducing a new uniform, revising the training program, 
creating a health program for employees' families modeled on 
that of the military, and helping to subsidize their 
children's education.  To address rampant corruption, he 
created an intelligence service within the prisons to report 
on abuse and bribery and to monitor prison conditions. He 
also managed to remove syndicates from the business of 
supplying prisons, a move that ran afoul of the members of 
parliament that ran them.  (NOTE: Several of these MPs 
petitioned the Home Minister unsuccessfully for Hasan's 
removal. END NOTE.)  To improve communication and promote 
more transparency, he instituted monthly "dharbars" or public 
meetings for prisoners and employees in each of the 67 
prisons, presided over by the head of the prison to discuss 
problems and concerns without fear of retribution.  Hasan 
also pushed through a major overhaul of the country's jail 
code, which governs how the prison system is operated. 
 
¶8. (SBU) To provide skills for prisoners, Hasan formalized 
what had been ad hoc literacy classes, with educated 
prisoners as teachers. He started creating canteens staffed 
by prisoners, and opened a bakery, beauty salon, and 
electronic repair service in the Dhaka Central Prison to put 
prisoners to work.  He acknowledged that poor conditions 
persist and that many of the changes are taking a long time 
to implement. Particularly in the beginning, some guards -- 
who could no longer collect bribes from prisoners to augment 
their income -- wrote poison pen letters trying to get Hasan 
removed, to no avail. 
 
============================================= 
FRUSTRATION WITH CURRENT CARETAKER GOVERNMENT 
============================================= 
 
¶9. (C) Hasan was candid in expressing his frustrations about 
working under the present caretaker government.  He said it 
was easier to push through changes when he had a direct line 
to former BNP Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babor. (NOTE: Babor 
himself is now in prison on corruption charges. END NOTE.) 
With the Home Ministry portfolio with the Chief Advisor, his 
access to the top has been limited.  The Home Secretary is 
also stretched thin and is often not accessible.  This means 
approvals that used to take days now can wait weeks for 
attention. 
 
============================================= ===== 
VIP PRISONERS PRESENT A "VERY DIFFICULT SITUATION" 
============================================= ===== 
 
¶10. (C) The Inspector General said that VIP prisoners 
presented a "very difficult situation" for him and that the 
prison system had to take special care of them.  He said he 
had visited former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda 
Zia and toured their sub-jails.  While neither of them will 
ever be happy to be incarcerated, he felt the prison system 
was taking excellent care of the two ladies.  It is also 
costing the prison system precious resources; the government 
has a freeze on hiring new prison staff, yet the two ladies' 
sub-jails on the grounds of Parliament require dozens of 
prison officials to staff. 
 
¶11. (C) Hasan dismissed Hasina's lawyers' demand that 
according to the jail code she is entitled to access to a 
cell phone.  According to Hasina's lawyers, the jail code 
guarantee that prisoners can "communicate orally" implies the 
right to a phone.  Hasan said that "oral communication" means 
the ability to speak face-to-face with family, friends, and 
attorneys. "It has never meant they can have cell phones, and 
no prisoner has had one."  When his intelligence officers 
discovered Sigma Huda had bribed guards to permit her to keep 
a cell phone in her room, he made sure it was promptly taken 
 
DHAKA 00001584  003 OF 003 
 
 
away and the guards involved disciplined. 
 
¶12. (C) Hasan also denied that Huda was being treated poorly. 
He said he was ensuring she had adequate access to her 
attorneys and to medical assistance, and he hoped, now that 
her trial had ended, the accusations from her family against 
the prison system would subside. He gave POLOFF his cell 
phone number, however, and urged that we contact him should 
we have any questions about Huda or other VIP prisoners. 
 
================================== 
COOPERATION WITH NGO'S "IMPORTANT" 
================================== 
 
¶13. (C) Alena Khan, president of the Bangladesh Society for 
the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR) said her organization 
has worked closely with Hasan to develop programs to help 
juveniles in prison.  Hasan said that while non-governmental 
organizations can sometimes be difficult to work with, given 
the lack of resources and the contributions they can make, it 
was important to engage them. 
 
=========================== 
COMMENT: AN AGENT OF CHANGE 
=========================== 
 
¶14. (C) The Inspector General strikes us as an agent of 
change, willing to tackle a prison system that is not at the 
top of the government's long list of priorities.  While there 
was definitely an element of public relations in his meeting 
with us, Hasan had a masterful grasp of data and seemed to 
know exactly what was happening in each of the country's 67 
prisons.  In addition, he displayed enthusiasm for his job, 
and seems truly committed to addressing the system's many 
inadequacies in spite of a lack of resources and funding. 
Pasi