Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners started a Prison Paralegal Program in 2017 in the Central Prison and Women’s Prison in Karachi. This program was later scaled to the Central Prisons in Hyderabad and Sukkur. This is a first-of-its-kind convict led paralegal program inside the prisons. The objective was to create a sustainable mechanism for all new inmates in prison to be informed on prison norms and rules, prisoners’ rights and duties as well as the Criminal Justice System and to promote legal literacy amongst prisoners. What makes this program unique is the sustainability which is ensured through training convicts as paralegals who then transfer knowledge to other prisoners.
A paralegal is a person who is trained on substantive knowledge of legal matters but is not qualified as a lawyer. Paralegals work to help other prisoners and assist them on different legal issues. All new arrivals attend legal awareness sessions twice a week that cover: Introduction to the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Fundamental Rights, Introduction to Crime, Criminal Law: The Basics of Criminal Law, Criminal Trial, Defenses and Sentencing, Probation, Parole and the Reasoning behind Sentences,, Juvenile Justice, Gender Sensitization and Marriage and some chunks of Sindh Prisons and Correctional Facilities Prison Rules 2019.
Since 2017, 251 inmates have been trained as paralegals who have in turn provided awareness to 6,454 prisoners.
The Paralegal Room was re-inagurated after renovation in Central Prison Hyderabad on 25th June 2021, by DIG Prisons Hyderabad Mr. Muzaffar Alam Siddiqui. The Paralegal Room was inaugurated in Central Prison Sukkur in December 2021.
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Striving for Justice Through Legal Empowerment | World Bank – May 25, 2019
Paralegal Program – Feb 21, 2019
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