cells. At night, most often, the individual cells in a ward, in addition to the ward door, are
locked and opened again only in the morning.
6.3.
Sanitary facilities
One or more toilet/s and a tank to fill water for bathing purposes are found towards the
end of a ward. The conditions and the number of toilets may vary from one prison to
another. In some prisons, tanks for bathing are built outside the wards and prisoners are
not supposed to bathe in the bathrooms inside the ward. Water to these tanks is supplied at
specified times of the day in most prisons, and detainees are expected to fill the tank during
this time. The detainees of cells, who are locked inside at night and are not able to use the
toilets in the wards, use buckets or polythene/plastic bags for sanitation purposes at night
and empty/clean these after the morning unlock the following day.
6.4.
Daily routine
In the morning the ward will be unlocked (morning unlock) and a count of the prisoners
will be undertaken by prison officers at 0600h. After the morning unlock, the prisoners
will be provided breakfast and the wards and cells will be locked again. The wards and
cells will be unlocked again at 0930h/1000h and will remain unlocked until around
1230h/1300h when lunch is served. During this period when the wards and cells are
unlocked, in most prisons, prisoners will be allowed to spend time outside, with the
physical space within which they are able to freely move depending on the structure of
each prison. The wards will be locked after serving lunch and unlocked again at 1400h and
will remain open until 1700h when another count of the prisoners, known as the evening
lock-up, will be taken by prison officers.
This general routine may be subjected to variations based on the category of the prisoners,
and the individual conditions, including the availability of the number of prison officers at
each prison. For instance, prisoners categorized as ‘special prisoners’, as well as
condemned prisoners will be unlocked only for one hour for exercise, while young
offenders (hereinafter referred to as YO) are also given a limited period of time outside the
wards, often due to security reasons, i.e. to ensure they remain segregated from adult
prisoners. The convicted prisoners usually go to work parties after morning unlock. The
counts obtained during the morning unlock and the evening lock-up are conveyed to the
headquarters of the DOP daily via phone.
7. Categories of prisoners
The two main categories of prisoners are convicted prisoners and remandees. The
categorization of prisoners in the PO as ‘civil’ and ‘criminal’ is no longer in use. The
convicted prisoners include those convicted for a certain number of months or years,
prisoners with life sentences, and condemned prisoners. There are also convicted
prisoners on appeal. Remandees detained on a Warrant of Detention are those who have
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