Pakistan. Fighting the Pandemic in Pakistan’s Prisons
Pakistan. Fighting the Pandemic in Pakistan’s Prisons
When the COVID-19 pandemic first swept Pakistan earlier this year, many feared that the country’s prisons were a ticking time bomb. Overcrowded and long-neglected, with prisoners packed like sardines in deplorable conditions, jail cells seemed like fertile breeding grounds for the virus.
Thankfully, no mass outbreaks have taken place so far, not least because of heroic efforts by civil society groups. But the scare has exposed something else: the urgent need to reform the Pakistani judicial system that today overwhelmingly punishes the country’s poorest. (OSF – Open Society Foundations Voices, USA, 09.09.2020)
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/fighting-the-pandemic-in-pakistans-prisons