Ghanzni PRT surveys Afghan prison for improvements

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

10.25.2010

Courtesy Story

ISAF Joint Command

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team surveyed the Ghazni City prison Saturday to look for potential improvement projects while also bringing blankets for the upcoming winter and concertina wire for extra security.

The prison’s warden, Afghan Col. Naeer Ali, who has been working in the prison section for 10 years, told the team the prison needed repairs for its walls, guard towers, sewage, cells and power system.

The prison, originally designed for 66 people, is overcrowded with about 300 men, 11 women and nine children. The children, ages 1 to 6, are not inmates, but they are staying with their mothers who have been jailed for various crimes.

In a previous visit, the Ghazni PRT brought along Afghan Lt. Gen. Amir Mohammed Jamsheed, Central Prisons director, Habibullah Ghallib, Afghan Minister of Justice, and U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Robert Harward, Combined Joint Interagency Task Force-435 commander, to see the conditions of Ghazni’s prison, Oct. 13. The latest visit allowed them to learn more about the needs of the prison.

“We need a new wall outside the previous one to stop outsiders from helping inmates break out,” Ali said.

Many of the prisoners are insurgents who belong to the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin and al-Qaida. The facility is not capable of separating the dangerous insurgents from the common criminals.

“The dangerous inmates are teaching the other ones,” Ali said.

The warden thanked the PRT for their carpentry project that allows the inmates to create furniture.

“We want to keep them busy,” Ali said. “I’d like to have you help us start up a carpet weaving project too.”

Magdalena Brzozowska, the PRT rule of law specialist, said that the team was trying to start up a project for the women.

“The PRT is looking into a tailoring course for women at the jail because the women don’t participate in the carpentry course,” Brzozowska said.

PRT engineers further learned that besides a new wall, the jail needed a visitor’s center. They also walked through the prison yard, where the septic tanks were overflowing with sewage that sat in the open air next to a volleyball net.

“We noticed that some of the physical infrastructure could use some help,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Philip Kapusta, Ghazni PRT commander from Valrico, Fla. “The good news is that the Minister of Justice and the Ghazni Prisons director have some money to help the prison and we would like to help as well.”

• Date Taken: 10.25.2010
• Date Posted: 10.25.2010 10:12
• Story ID: 58753
• Location: KABUL, AF