The government is going to construct an "open jail" at Ukhia upazila of Cox’s Bazar district to help prisoners get their social and fundamental rights.
Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin made the disclosure while briefing journalists on details of the 4th Asia-Pacific Correctional Managers Conference on Sunday.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal will inaugurate the conference, which is to be held at Le Meridien in Dhaka from May 16 to 19.
Directorate of Prison and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are jointly organising the conference where 28 senior officials of prisons from 14 countries will participate.
He said the feasibility study for construction of the jail has already been completed, and construction will be finished within the next few years.
Iftekhar said usually there are two types of open jails – one with fencing and the other without fencing.
The government is yet to decide whether the new open jail would be with or without a fence, he added.
He said: “The prisoners across the globe enjoy different facilities related to social and fundamental rights in open jails but this type of jail is currently absent in our country.
“We are building the open jail in line with modern initiatives taken up by other countries.”
An open jail is an informal description applied to any penal establishment in which the prisoners are trusted to serve their sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are not locked up in prison cells. In such jails, prisoners are permitted to take up employment while serving their sentence.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
