The caretaker government (CG) on Wednesday decided to review the cases of those detained on suspicion and charges of petty crimes and to release them gradually through legal process.

Following the decision of the advisory committee on law and order, prison authorities on Thursday instructed all the officials concerned in 66 prisons across the country to prepare a list of the inmates who were detained on charges of petty crimes.

The jail authorities could not yet finalise their list, but the estimated number of such detainees would not be more than five per cent of around a total of 80,000 prisoners in 66 jails, said a top prison official.

The jail officials will tomorrow send the lists to the Directorate of Prison and then the final list will be sent to the ministry concerned, sources said.

"We are working to identify those who are imprisoned on charges of petty crimes in different jails," Inspector General (Prison) Brig Gen Zakir Hasan told The Daily Star yesterday evening.

Responding to a question, he said the 'detainees on charges of petty crimes' refer to the people arrested on suspicion or allegations of crimes like theft and carrying bottles of phensidyl.

Of the 66 jails in the country, 11 are central jails in different districts, while others are district jails.

The country's jails with accommodation for only 27,000 in total are too inadequate for nearly 80,000 prisoners, said Deputy Inspector General (Prison) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui.

Dhaka Central Jail with the capacity for 2,682 prisoners is now facing serious troubles to accommodate around 9,000 prisoners, he noted.

He said officials are preparing the list of the detainees who are in prison on suspicion under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Discouraging the arrests under Section 54 of the CrPC, the advisory committee meeting on Wednesday said explanation has to be given for such arrests.

The move to release the detainees on petty charges has been initiated against the backdrop of the government's special drives to arrest the big guns in the career of crime and corruption.

On an average, around 72,000 prisoners stay in all the jails, but now the number has increased to around 80,000 following the recent move to arrest the criminals.

In the recent drive against the criminals, the government so far arrested 20 big fish.

More than 40,000 'petty criminals' have been detained across the country since the declaration of the state of emergency on January 11.

Only a small portion of the said detainees were sent to prisons, while the others were freed from the police custody after a short time of detention, prison sources said.

As mismanagement prevails in jails where the prisoners live in abject misery in crowded rooms, jail reforms and modernisation have been widely discussed issues for long but no effective move has so far been taken to address the problems.