State of Kabul's main prison highlights need for penal reform

Yasmin and her two children had to struggle for more than two hours behind a rusting metal fence to get a glimpse of her husband imprisoned within the thick walls of Kabul's Velayat prison. "I did not hear what he said and could not talk either," the mother of four said, noting that she had come from Nejrab, 200 km north of the capital, to visit him. According to prison officials, lack of space for visitors as well as insufficient rooms for the inmates is leading to growing tension at the prison. The 100-year-old building, which was constructed to accommodate 200, currently houses about 680 convicts in 17 rooms. "It is not easy to manage the crowd, as over 1,000 people gather in this small yard to visit their jailed dependants," Col Azizollah Khalili, the officer in charge of Velayat prison, told IRIN, adding that there were over 40 convicts in each room, which was built to house between 10 and 15. Prisoners told IRIN that contact with family and friends was almost impossible as there was no system in place for visits. "We wait a whole week hoping to see our families, but it becomes impossible when hundreds of people on both sides of the wall rush to catch a place next to this 10- to 15-metre long fence," Mohammad Naser, who has been in prison for more than a year, told IRIN. Conditions generally at the prison are such that inmates come to dread the winter. "We just passed the disastrous hot days of summer, and winter will be horrible in these dark rooms with no sunshine," another inmate, Mohammad Sameh, told IRIN. He added that they had no blankets or means of heating to protect them from the intense cold of Kabul's five-month winter. Afghan prisoners generally have to rely on relatives or friends to meet almost all their needs, including clothing and blankets. According to Khalili, prison resources are limited to providing three meals per day, and prison warders are often even worse off than the prisoners. "The guards and officials sleep in the yard or on the roof, and there is no separate toilet for staff," the prison head said, adding that he had not received his salary for three months. Officials conceded that despite donor interest, prison conditions across the country were poor; lack of resources meant that most jails fell far short of minimum international standards. "We have not been supported by any organisation to refurbish or build more rooms and a visitors area in Kabul's Velayat jail, while our own resources is too limited," Abdul Salam Bakhshi, the director-general of prisons at the Afghan justice ministry, told IRIN. "In the course of one year we have had many donors and human rights bodies visiting Kabul Velayat prison but, unfortunately, no one has given us practical help so far," he said. More than 3,000 convicts are currently held in 32 government-run prisons across the country, with thousands more incarcerated under appalling conditions in private facilities often controlled by warlords. Prison reform clearly has a long way to go in Afghanistan. The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) is the lead agency in implementing reform within the justice and penal system. "We are starting from scratch in many areas. In terms of prison reform, we are trying to look at very, very basic issues: conditions of confinement for inmates in Kabul, with the intention of trying to move some of our activities outside Kabul," Adam Bouloukos, the UNODC deputy representative in Kabul, told IRIN, adding that the programme was very modest with a budget of less than US $2 million for all the prisons in the country. "We have identified needs, but more money and time is needed," the Bouloukos said, adding that the agency had to coordinate with the government and implement projects according to the plans of the Afghan central administration. "What we are doing is working on a new part of the old Pol-e Charkhi prison building in Kabul. The intention would be that this would be the main prison of Kabul and could hold many, many inmates once it's actually up and running," he said. In a report published earlier this year on the state of Afghan prisons, entitled "Crumbling Prison System Desperately in Need of Repair", Amnesty International called on the government and donors to take immediate action. "All round the country, men and women suffer in detention, deprived not only of their liberty but stripped also of their dignity," it said.