NCJ Number
76023
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Prison administration and the recruitment and training of correctional personnel in Bangladesh are discussed.
Abstract
The present system and practices of prison administration were established during the 200-year period of British domination, which ended in 1947. From 1947 to 1971, when Pakistan administered the country, no improvements were made, so that imprisonment today means punishment without training or social rehabilitation. Bangladesh's institutions of higher education are not interested in prison administration, and a training institute for correctional staff is nonexistent. Prison personnel are appointed without testing or training, and most new employees have little education and choose the corrections field only because they could not get jobs elsewhere. Health Department doctors are responsible for prison medical services, and they are sometimes unsympathetic towards the offenders and noncooperative with officials and staff. If the government would like to modernize the present system, it must make the prison service more attractive to potential recruits by providing better pay and higher job status to prison personnel. Recruitment practices should be changed so that background checks are performed and only candidates with good social and academic backgrounds are accepted. In addition, candidates should be required to pass written psychological, sociological, and personality tests. Provision should be made for the promotion of qualified guards to officer ranks, and both guards and officers should undergo preservice and inservice training. Furthermore, the prison system should have its own health service. Suggestions for programs at a proposed prison training institute are presented. The institute would focus on methods of offender rehabilitation and provide training to staff at all job levels. A reference list or footnotes are not included.