The Silent Crisis: Inside Pakistan’s Overcrowded Jails

Prisons are a mirror of society. They reveal how a state treats its most vulnerable, how justice is delivered, and how human dignity is valued. In Pakistan, the condition of jails exposes not just administrative inefficiency but a deep societal mindset that confuses punishment with justice and neglects rehabilitation altogether.

Killer Facts Upfront

• Nearly 3 out of 4 prisoners in Pakistan have never been convicted– they are under-trial detainees waiting for justice that may never come.[1]
• Pakistan imprisons only 45 out of every 100,000 people, among the lowest incarceration rates in the world[2] yet jails are bursting at 152% of capacity.[3]
• In some prisons, one doctor may be responsible for 2,000 inmates, leaving outbreaks of TB, HIV, and hepatitis unchecked.[4]

By these measures, Pakistan’s justice system is failing. Today, the country’s 128 prisons hold over 102,000 inmates in facilities built for just 65,000, an average occupancy of 152%, one of the highest in South Asia.[5] Karachi Central Jail is the starkest example. Designed for 2,400 inmates, it currently holds 8,518 prisoners, an astonishing 355% of its capacity. Punjab, housing over 60% of all prisoners, operates at nearly 174% occupancy, Sindh at 161%, Balochistan at 116%, and KP at 103%.[6]

Who Is Behind Bars?

Pakistan’s prison population is overwhelmingly male, but it also includes:

• 1,550 women, many housed in women’s wards of male prisons.
• 1,584 juveniles, often mixing with older offenders despite separate borstal facilities.
• 1,883 elderly prisoners, many medically vulnerable.
• 17 transgender detainees, at risk of harassment and neglect.

Many are in for petty or bailable offences – youth jailed over stolen mobile phones, women caught in domestic feuds or drug cases, men accused in murder cases and inheritance disputes. Poverty keeps them locked in, without bail money, legal aid, or influence, they languish for years without conviction.

A History of Warnings

The Justice Dorab Patel Commission (1985), the Shah Commission (1990s), and the Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan (2002) all described prison overcrowding as a “ticking time bomb.”[7] They recommended probation, parole, and community service for petty crimes. Four decades later, the bomb has gone off.

The reason is not high crime rates. Pakistan’s incarceration rate is among the lowest globally. The real problem is justice delayed, nearly three-quarters of inmates are under-trials, trapped in endless legal limbo.

Why Are Prisons So Overcrowded?

• Excessive pre-trial detention: nearly three in four inmates are unconvicted. Delays in investigation, weak legal aid, and frequent adjournments prolong detention.[8]
• Punitive drug laws: amendments to the Control of Narcotic Substances Act restrict parole/probation for drug offences, even minor ones.
• Underused probation and parole frameworks: laws exist but are rarely applied
• Fragmented data: provinces classify and record differently, blocking real-time relief.

Beyond Numbers: Human Dignity Behind Bars

• Health: One doctor for 2,000 inmates, and jail hospitals meant for 100 beds see 500 patients daily. Outbreaks of TB, HIV, and hepatitis are common[9].
• Nutrition: Prison meal — thin dal, stale bread, dirty water–are meagre and unsafe. Families of poor prisoners struggle to supplement them.
• Weather extremes: Scorching summers without fans and freezing winters without blankets worsen suffering.
• Basic hygiene: Overcrowded barracks mean inmates sleep in shifts, sharing contaminated toilets and water.

The Plight of Visitors

For prisoners’ families, visits are lifelines and laced with humiliation. Mothers and children queue for hours outside in the heat, and endure arbitrary checks. Poor families suffer most, while the wealthy buy comfort with bribes.

Reforms like Punjab’s online booking system or KP’s e-visits are steps forward, but in most jails, the visitor’s dignity remains the first casualty.

The Forgotten Stakeholders: Jail Staff

Behind the high walls, staff too are victims of the crisis. Guards are overworked, underpaid, and poorly trained. Corruption ranging from bribes for visits to illegal markets for phones and drugs, flourishes in this environment.

Jail officials privately admit they feel abandoned, tasked with impossible duties, blamed when things go wrong, yet offered no professional recognition or promotion.

Without dignifying and professionalizing staff, no reform will last.

Survival by Charity

During my own oversight of prisons, I have seen how charity fills the gaps left by the state. Families bring food and medicine, philanthropists install water coolers, NGOs provide legal aid. Without this generosity, many inmates would not survive.

But this is also an indictment: dignity behind bars should not depend on donations. Rights to food, health, and legal aid are constitutional obligations, not favours.

Education, Skills, and the Future

Jails offer industrial and vocational activities from tailoring to carpentry alongside limited formal education. But when prisoners live without dignity, these programs achieve little. I met young inmates learning trades, yet anxious about futures clouded by stigma.

Prison must be a place of rehabilitation, not despair. Education, formal and informal alongside skills training can turn inmates into contributing citizens if society offers them dignity upon release.

Terrorism, Radicalization, and Vulnerability

In my visits to different jails, I also met high-risk detainees, including terrorism suspects. Some confessed they had been misled in youth, manipulated by networks exploiting poverty and ignorance. Without structured de-radicalization programs, prisons risk becoming incubators of extremism rather than sites of correction.

Socio-Economic Roots of Crime

Most prisoners are poor. Many are youth caught for stealing cell phones, women in domestic feuds or drug trafficking, or men jailed over land disputes. Prison is not just a justice issue, it reflects Pakistan’s wider socio-economic fragility, unemployment, lack of tolerance, and absence of safety nets. A humane system would focus on creating jobs, valuing skills, and promoting social tolerance to prevent crime at its roots.

Toward Humanizing Justice

Real change requires a shift from punishment to rehabilitation. Reform must be rooted in dignity and practicality, not delay and neglect. That means:

• Professionalize jail staff through training, better pay, and recognition as correctional professionals, not just guards.
• Invest in rehabilitation by expanding industrial training, education, and counselling linked to real employment opportunities.
• Guarantee basic dignity with hygiene, food, clean water, and protection against extreme weather.
• Expand alternatives to incarceration such as probation, fines, and community service to keep minor offenders out of overcrowded jails.
• Prioritize health and mental care with proper screening, forensic psychiatry, and treatment for TB, HIV, and hepatitis.
• Humanize prison visits by eliminating bribery and respecting the dignity of prisoners’ families.
• Counter radicalization through structured de-radicalization and reintegration programs that break cycles of extremism.

Conclusion: Justice or Neglect?

Pakistan’s prisons are not just correctional facilities; they are reflections of our collective values. Their current state signals a society more invested in retribution than rehabilitation, more tolerant of corruption than of reform, more willing to punish than to correct.

I have walked through the dreaded wards and corridors of Mach, Kot Lakhpat, Abbottabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad Borstal, and Karachi jails. I have seen human misery, helplessness, plight, and regrets.[10]

The plight of prisoners and staff alike compels us to ask: Do we want prisons that perpetuate cycles of crime and abuse, or institutions that restore dignity and prepare individuals for a second chance?

The silent crisis of prisons is not only a legal issue, it is a moral test of Pakistan’s commitment to justice.

[1] National Commission for Human rights (NCHR), Prison Report 2024-25

[2] World Prison Brief (World Prison Population List, 14th Edition), May 2024

[3] The Express Tribune, “Jails Over Flowing” Jan 2025

[4] Human Rights Watch & NCHR, Prison Health Surveys, 2023-24

[5] NCHR, National Academy for Prison Administration, and Justice Project Pakistan, 2025

[6] The Express Tribune, “Jails Over Flowing” Jan 2025

[7] Justice Dorab Patel Commission (1985); Shah Commission Reports (1990s; Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan, Prison Reforms Commission Reports (2002)

[8] National Commission for Human rights (NCHR), Prison Report 2024-25

[9] Human Rights Watch & NCHR, Prison Health Surveys, 2023-24

[10] Author’s own “Prison Report — Survey of 7 Jails under aegis of Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat, Islamabad, 2019