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Afghanistan: restoring dignity for detainees in overcrowded jails
21-03-2011 Photo gallery
Digging wells, installing latrines and building showers are all part of the work of the ICRC's water and habitat department in Afghanistan’s provincial jails. Other activities include building or re-furbishing prison kitchens and clinics and rehabilitating family areas, where detainees can meet their loved ones on visiting days.
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The first step in any project involves making a technical assessment of the needs. This helps to identify and analyse the main problems, define what measures need to be taken and which is the most urgent work to be done.
“Prison directors tell us they like the way the ICRC includes them in every step of the process, ” Engineer Eqbal remarks. “We sign a memorandum of understanding with them before we begin a project and this helps to give the prison authorities a sense of ownership of the process. The ICRC prefers to work in partnership, not through substitution.”
Memorandums of understanding are drawn up in both English and Dari or Pashto. They define the scope and limitations of the ICRC’s support. They also give responsibilities to the prison authorities concerning the maintenance of the completed works.
Ensuring clean living conditions for detainees is another essential task. Teams of specially trained hygiene promoters visit jails to give lessons about basic hygiene to detainees and guards. The aim is to maintain adequate standards of cleanliness even in the most overcrowded facilities, allowing detainees to retain their dignity and self-respect.
Before starting any project, agreement is reached with local prison directors and the relevant government ministries over what the work will entail. The ICRC will only undertake a project when the authorities are unable, for whatever reason, to do the work themselves.
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The surface and slope of the drainage channel must allow for the rapid and regular flow of waste material. Even despite these precautions, drains can easily get blocked when items are thrown down the latrines. To avoid this, the authorities are encouraged to establish rubbish collection points inside the prison compound where detainees can dispose of their trash. -
Overcrowding in one of the major problems in Afghanistan’s provincial jails. Ensuring that toilets and showers are kept properly clean is emphasized during sessions carried out by small teams of ICRC hygiene promoters who pass on simple, clear messages to detainees and staff. Since many audiences are illiterate, they use flip charts with pictures to explain the risks of poor hygiene, and the precautions that can be taken to ensure healthy living. -
For detainees, their access to water may be limited if the detention facility is located in an area with a poor or dirty source, or none at all. The ICRC can help by drilling boreholes and erecting water towers to store water. The water will be used for drinking, bathing, cooking, cleaning and washing clothes.
The frequency of the supply, and its yield, its connection to the urban network, the availability of electricity to run pumps or to channel water from an independent source, and the presence of possible pollution are some of the key factors to take into account when planning any intervention.
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Detainees receive buckets and cleaning materials, as well as soap, toothbrushes and other toiletries. Mr Aziz is in charge of such operations for the ICRC. “We have several kinds of kits that we distribute,” he says. “There are individual kits for personal hygiene, latrine kits for cleaning toilets, and kits for cleaning clinics and kitchens. There is also a rubbish collection kit for disposing of garbage.” -
The kitchens in many Afghan jails are often rudimentary, with inadequate equipment, dark premises and poor ventilation. Cooking is mostly done over open fires. Open fires consume huge amounts of wood, slow down the cooking process and fill the kitchen with smoke.
Walls and floors must be easy to clean. Since cooking is usually done early in the morning and in the evening after dark, good lighting is also necessary. Ovens must be constructed with fire resistant bricks, and vents installed above the cooking surface.
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Improving humanitarian conditions in places of detention is a fundamental part of the ICRC’s protection work worldwide. But it is always a collective effort, engaging delegates and engineers, local contractors and daily workers, as well as the prison authorities.
Currently, the ICRC has projects ongoing or planned in 53 places of detention, including 26 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial prisons, 24 juvenile detention centres, and the country’s Central jail.
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