Locked up and forgotten

The state authorities seemingly believe their job is done when they throw criminals behind bars.

By keeping criminals confined, prisons help maintain law and order. Yet a growing body of research suggests that a prison sentence, instead of helping to reform criminals, makes them prone to committing more crimes in the future. Due to social stigma, those incarcerated have very low job and income prospects when they are released. It is not just the question of social stigma though. Spending a long time in the vicinity of other criminals only hardens criminal tendencies. This is especially so if the prisons are crowded and inmates do not enjoy even a modicum of privacy. Nepal’s prisons are notoriously overcrowded. Built to house around 16,000 inmates, they now pack in over 30,000 people. Abuse of drugs and alcohol is rampant; and gang violence all too common. All these attributes make Nepali prisons dangerous places, even for criminals. Take the latest incident of violent clashes in the Kailali District Prison on Friday, which has left one inmate dead and scores of others injured, some seriously.