Prison infrastructure creaking under weight of inmate population: Home minister 

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday said the inmate population in the country is nearly twice the capacity of prisons to house them.

"The total capacity of 68 prisons in the country is 42,866 inmates, including 40,937 men and 1,929 women. Whereas, the total number of prisoners staying at different jails is 77,203," said the minister while replying to a question from ruling Awami League MP M Abdul Latif from Chattogram-11.

He said all jails in the country except Jashore, Sylhet, Dinajpur, Feni, Pirojpur and Madaripur jails, have more prisoners than their capacity.

Stating the process of increasing the capacity in prisons is underway, including construction or expansion of Mymensingh, Cumilla, Khulna, Narsingdi and Jamalpur prisons, he said, "The capacity of the under-construction prisons will increase by 5,000 after completion." 

The home minister said the women's central jail in Kashimpur has a total capacity of 200 prisoners, but now 634 prisoners are staying there.

The total number of women prisoners in various jails of the country is 2,981.

The minister said Keraniganj Central Jail in Kashimpur has a capacity of 4,590 but there are 9,765 prisoners staying there.

In response to another question of M Abdul Latif, the minister said in 2022, 113.3 kg of ice and 167 LSD strips were seized across the country.

In January to July of 2023, those numbers were exceeded with 114.5 kg of ice and 129 LSD strips were seized.

The home minister said yaba and ice infiltrate into Bangladesh through the Naf River from neighbouring Myanmar.

The home minister also said anti-drug committees have been formed in 31,080 educational institutions across the country to protect students from the menace of drugs.

He said the government is preserving databases of human traffickers through crime data management system software.