Department of Prisons

The department faces severe systemic overcrowding and ongoing scrutiny regarding the treatment of vulnerable inmates and custodial abuse allegations.

The Department of Prisons operates under the Security Services Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Following the Cabinet Division gazette of 3 September 2025, the SSD and Public Security Division are now under a single Home Ministry secretary, but the SSD continues as the named administrative parent for attached departments including Prisons, Immigration and Passports, Fire Service and Civil Defence, and Narcotics Control. The official website prison.gov.bd confirms the current IG. The Khulna Division prison portal (prison.khulna.gov.bd) published the announcement of Brig Gen Syed Md Motaher Hossain, NDC, PSC taking charge as IG on 11 August 2024, confirmed as the appointment date. The established_year is set to 1971 (Bangladesh independence); the department traces its institutional lineage to the colonial Prisons Act, 1894 and is among the departments inherited at independence, but has not had a separate founding act post-1971. The draft Correction Services Act, 2025 would, if enacted, replace the 1894 Act as the legal basis. Overcrowding figures: 83,107 inmates against 42,459 capacity (World Prison Brief / Bonikbarta, October 2025 data), occupancy ~196%; 81.3% pre-trial -- cited figures are from the Prisons Directorate and World Prison Brief (Birkbeck College), cross-checked with Justice Audit Bangladesh. Annual budget and total sanctioned staff count are not published in disaggregated form in open sources; staff_count and budget fields are left null to avoid fabrication. The 1,899 approved posts figure is from the August 2025 press briefing (BSS/TBS coverage) and reported consistently across multiple outlets.