[01] Md. Bashir Uddin Khan, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. [02] Tang Yanwen, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. [03] Moonmoon Binta Aziz, Department of Criminology and Police Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Tangail, Bangladesh.

Prison related studies are very limited in Bangladesh. In this context, this study is an exploratory one combining the basic issues of prisons and prisoners in the country. The objective of this study was to understand the status of the prison population, to know the typs of prisons with their geographic distribution, and to develop a comparative understanding of prisoners’ statistics between Bangladesh and Asia along with the whole world. We used various secondary resources like different legal codes, government, and media reports, official publications, national and organiza]tional resources, books, and journals for collecting data in this regard. We analyzed the information and statistical data using various graphs, comparative figures, tables, maps, and other illustrations. This study finds that the overall prison population and the rate of undertrial prisoners are liable for overcrowding the prisons in Bangladesh. However, the locations of jails seem to be quite appropriate and properly distributed throughout the whole country as per the administrative boundaries of the district headquarters but the capacities of those institutes are inadequate. A comparison of the overall prison population of Bangladesh with some other Asian countries reveals the need for strong actions to reduce the prison population as well as undertrial prisoners formulating proper policies for that.

Prisoners, Undertrial, Geographic Locations, Human Rights, Prison Statistics

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