The Rolpa District Prison located in Libang in ward 4 of Rolpa Municipality, is in a dilapidated condition, and houses prisoners twice its designated capacity.

According to Yam Bahadur Wali, acting chief of the district prison, the prison was built in 1982 with a maximum capacity of only 50 prisoners, but currently there are 123 prisoners in the prison.

“The prison guidelines and infrastructure were built to hold only 35 men and 15 women, but currently there are 114 male and nine female prisoners. We are forced to keep new arrivals and transferred prisoners in a tiny cell due to a lack of space,” said Wali.

“There is always a risk of prisoners getting attacked by other prisoners in a cramped cell, mostly the detainees who are remanded in judicial custody for investigation. Very often, prisoners start brawls and injure others; new arrivals and transferred prisoners are the most vulnerable ones here,” Wali added.

According to the prison administration office, the number of prisoners serving time for committing homicide and rape is higher. There are 36 prisoners convicted of homicides, 29 of rape, and nine of illegal drug-related cases, among others.

Similarly, among the prisoners and detainees, there are three who have reached the age of 65.

Krishna Dangi, a health worker at the Rolpa Hospital who has been treating the inmates of the prison, said that overcrowding increases the risk of communicable disease outbreaks.

“There is a risk of spread of infectious diseases during the summer season. There is a possibility of an increase in the incidence of skin, respiratory, and communicable diseases if people are forced to stay in small places,” said Dangi.

“Almost everybody in the prison is infected with some kind of skin-related communicable disease or mental health issue. The accused who are remanded into judicial custody for investigation and transferred prisoners are also kept with the other prisoners, and they often have mental breakdowns after being bullied by regular prisoners,” Dangi added.

Khim Bahadur Rayamajhi, chief district officer of Rolpa, who recently got transferred, said that authorities are forced to keep more prisoners than the capacity at the district prison due to the delay in the construction of the new prison building.

“Four years ago, after repeated requests from the prison authorities, construction was started for a new prison building in Reuga in ward 2 of Rolpa Municipality, but due to a lack of coordination between the construction company and the provincial government that allocated the budget, the work has been left in limbo,” said Rayamajhi.

“The prison is 42 years old, and is in such a poor condition that the authorities struggle to provide basic needs such as food and water to the inmates. Due to a shortage of toiletries, the cleanliness and hygiene of prisoners have been severely compromised,” said Dangi.

According to Wali, there are only eight rooms at the ‘D'-category prison. Similarly, the prison rule book says five rooms are allocated for 35 male and three rooms for 15 female prisoners. However, currently, seven rooms are being used by male prisoners and only one room by females.

“We are forced to keep 17 to 20 prisoners per room, and until the new prison building is completed, prisoners have no choice but to suffer in silence. The contractor of the new prison building has gone out of contact leaving the work incomplete,” said Wali.

Wali said that due to the poor condition of the prison, several prisoners have escaped twice by digging tunnels, and some of the escapees have yet to be nabbed by the police.

Two years ago, a male prisoner brought from Banke Prison killed himself by hanging in Rolpa Prison. A detailed investigation was also launched by the Nepalgunj office team of the National Human Rights Commission into the case.

Human rights advocate Basanta Gautam, who has been monitoring the prison, said that the inmate committed suicide due to poor safety arrangements in the prison.

“The human rights commission’s investigation found that the man was persistently bullied and attacked by other prisoners, and due to that, he became mentally ill and killed himself. The provincial and district authorities should soon build another prison and treat prisoners humanely; otherwise, such incidents will continue to occur,” said Gautam.