released prisoners alleged many prisons underreported cases of COVID-19. Authorities often incarcerated pretrial detainees with convicted prisoners. Prison Directorate statistics revealed 43 of 141 positions for prison doctors were vacant as of August, with only five doctors assigned to prisons full-time. Conditions in prisons, and often within the same prison complex, varied widely. Authorities held some prisoners in areas subject to high temperatures, poor ventilation, and overcrowding. While the law requires holding juveniles separately from adults, authorities incarcerated many juveniles alongside adults. Children were sometimes imprisoned (occasionally with their mothers) despite laws and court decisions prohibiting the imprisonment of children. The BPD continued to operate under provisions from British colonial law that allow children up to the age of seven to remain with their mothers in custody. Authorities held female prisoners separately from men. Although Dhaka’s central jail had facilities for those with mental disabilities, not all detention facilities had such facilities, nor are they required by law. Administration: Prisons lacked any formal process for offenders to submit grievances. Prisons had no ombudsperson to receive prisoner complaints. Retraining and rehabilitation programs were extremely limited. Independent Monitoring: The government permitted visits from government inspectors and nongovernmental observers who were aligned with the incumbent party. No reports on these inspections were released. The International Committee of the Red Cross continued to support the BPD and assisted 68 prison centers across the country, including supplying personal protective equipment and helping the government operate isolation centers to alleviate the spread of COVID19. According to the BPD, district and magistrate judges visited the prisons at least once every month. Improvements: The BPD attempted to address overcrowding by adding and renovating housing units in several jail locations. The BPD undertook modernization projects at 32 facilities to increase security and provide a safer Page 8