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A total of 690 prisoners who escaped from several prisons following the July uprising in 2024 remain at large, while authorities have no information on 166 of them, Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain said Tuesday.
He made the disclosure at a press conference on current affairs and various activities of the Department of Prisons at its headquarters in Bakshibazar, Dhaka.
According to the inspector general, 2,247 prisoners escaped from prisons across the country in 2024, of whom 690 have yet to be recaptured.
A total of 826 prisoners escaped from Narsingdi District Jail. The prison authorities have been unable to locate the records of 166 of those escapees, he said.
Nine militant prisoners also escaped from custody, six of whom have since been arrested. The remaining three are still at large.
The inspector general said prisons are currently holding more than twice their designated capacity, making accommodation a major challenge. As a result, authorities are unable to keep militant prisoners separately under the existing conditions.
“Our goal was not merely to run prisons, but to lay the foundation for a modern correctional service where security, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates, and the professional dignity, skills and welfare of prison officials and employees receive equal importance,” he said.
He said Mymensingh District Jail has been operating as a “cashless” prison since June 24, which has created greater scope for transparency in prison management.
Administrative structures at the headquarters and divisional levels have also been reorganised to improve the efficiency of prison administration, he added.
On addressing the longstanding staff shortage, Motaher Hossain said 1,899 new posts had already been approved, while a proposal for another 1,500 posts had been submitted to the relevant authorities.
He said efforts were underway to make recruitment more transparent, competitive, merit-based and technology-driven. Increased use of technology has helped reduce opportunities for irregularities and middlemen and identify fake candidates at various stages of recruitment.
“Merit, competence, integrity and professional efficiency will remain the primary considerations in recruitment for the prison department,” he said.
To ease overcrowding and strengthen prison management capacity, the government has also taken steps to open new prisons. Two central prisons and eight district prisons have already been brought into operation, he added.