 Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss the prison as an important aspect of criminal justice system. So prisons are essential components of criminal justice system, responsible for incarcerating convicted criminals and keeping them separated from the society. So criminals can't keep the society with normal people, that's why they use prisons as correctional facilities. For example, if there is a murderer, and he has committed a crime or murdered because of any motive, then potentially he can be dangerous for the rest of the society. That's why it is kept in this correctional facility based on this logic. Similarly, other criminals are involved in theft, robbery, or rape cases. So prison is seen as a correctional facility. However, unfortunately, the correctional facility in Pakistan is not used for rehabilitation purposes as it is used in modern western societies. So prisons serve a range of purposes including punishment, rehabilitation, and deterrence. One purpose is to punish you according to your crime. Another purpose is rehabilitation as well. The motive or your opinions should be changed, modified, and re-socialized through rehabilitation process so that you can function as a normal human being in the society. Then important purpose is to create the deterrence. For the rest of the society, it should be a kind of threat for potential criminals. If you commit any crime like this, then the law enforcement agencies or the criminal justice system will apprehend you in the same way and you will be punished for this. The conditions in prisons can have a significant impact on the physical and mental well-being of the prisoners and can also affect their likelihood of reinforcing. So it depends on your prison system, whether it is being used as a correctional facility or this is a punishment for the sake of punishment. And it can also be possible that the crimes and not only the facilitation but also the socialization of the criminals can also be possible in prisons. The main reason for this is that when a criminal or potential criminal is connected to another criminal in a confined environment, they are definitely involved in a negative socialization process. And when they come out of that prison, it is possible that they are more dangerous for the society. So it depends on how your prison system is being used. If it is being used for rehabilitation and deterrence purposes, then it can have positive effects. But if it is being used for criminal socialization purposes, then it would have very negative consequences for the society. In Pakistan, the prison system is managed by the provincial governments and there are a range of different types of prisons, such as central jails, district jails and women jails. Recently, the juvenile jail or juvenile rehabilitation centers are also looking into Pakistan and we can see that the justice system is slowly reforming in Pakistan and prioritizing that human rights can be focused. For example, the rights of children, the juvenile delinquents should not be kept in the adult jails but should be kept in the rehabilitation centers so that they can become the victims of the rehabilitation process in the real sense. The prison system in Pakistan has been subject to criticism and controversy, particularly with regard to issues of overcrowding, poor conditions and mistreatment of prisoners. So all these issues, like in a jail cell, if there is a place for five or ten people, then more than two or three people are put in there. Similarly, the conditions are very deplorable and very poor. In a sense, the food is not good, which is not hygienic and poor health conditions are not good. So, instead of the correctional facility, the jail feels like it is just a place for punishment. Efforts are underway to improve the prison system in Pakistan, including through the introduction of new facilities and adoption of international standards for the treatment of prisoners. In the recent past, because of human rights organizations and some social media news, the reformation of the prison system is being strengthened and the introduction of new technology is being reformed. So, on the whole, for a sociologist, it's a food for thought that if you really want to have an overview of an in-depth knowledge of the prison system in Pakistan, you need to go and observe that how prisoners are spending their lives in these prisons and what are the possible repercussions of this prison system on the betterment of society.