Abstract
This paper examined the impacts of overcrowding on the reintegration of the prisoners with specific focus on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) jails. Triangulation method was adopted for data collection and analysis. Four central jails and three district jails i.e., seven prison were purposively selected from all the seven divisions of Khyberpakhtunkhwa province. Within seven jails 250 inmates were interviewed through semi-structured questionnaire adopting random sampling technique. Moreover, jail officials, ex-prisoners, human right activists, judges and lawyers were purposively selected and their views were taken through interview schedule. Throughout the study it was found that overcrowding gave birth to various problems such as, spread of chronic diseases, unhygienic environment, no effective programmatic (educational, vocational, religious, psychological etc) interventions, lack of check and balance, prisons’ rioting, nonclassification of the prisoners (on the basis of age, sex, nature of crime etc). Moreover, the larger part of the budget as well as the main focus of prisons’ staff was directed towards handling the huge prisons’ population, rather than ensuring rehabilitative setting. Fair and speedy justice, construction of more jails, extension of existing jails, alternative to imprisonment in petty nature crimes, efficient probation and parole system and the rehabilitative prisons’ setting to overcome the cycle of recidivism are suggested remedial measures.

Rais Gul. (2018) Overcrowding and its Impacts on the Reintegration of Prisoners in Selected Jails of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, The Dialogue, Volume 13, Issue 1.
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