| KANDAHAR CITY (NNI): Illiteracy is so rampant among guards at Kandahar's Sarposa prison that when a car drives in through the heavily armed gates, almost no one has the ability to read the licence plate number, nor record a visitor's name.
Roughly 80 per cent of prison staff has little to no ability to read, write or do simple mathematics, said Rob Cater, a British Columbia-based Corrections Canada officer working as a mentor at the jail, which houses some of the most violent criminals in the country, Canwest News Service reported.
Prison reports, he said, are almost exclusively verbal, passed on through the chain of command until someone has the skills to put the message down on paper.
Undeniably, accuracy is a problem. "It's like the telephone game you play when you are a kid. You pass information on to the next, to the next, to the next and by the time it gets where it has to go, it's a totally different story," Cater said.
Earlier this month, Canada took its first steps to address the issue, adding a new literacy class to ongoing weapons and professional training at the prison. Enrolled are about 100 male and four female staffers, along with Sarposa's nine women prisoners.
The goal of the $17,000 project is to bring students up to a Grade 3 education level over the course of the next four months, and close the gap on security issues at the prison.
Cater, who helped to initiate the program, said he wants guards to be able to keep a daily logbook of what happened on their shift, record who is coming in and out of the prison, and pass detailed information on to prosecutors in the event of an "incident."
"Same as we do in Canada," he said. Prison guards or "soldiers" as they are referred to here are among the lowest paid of Afghanistan's fledgling security forces, earning less than $100 US per month.
At the same time, their heavy wool uniforms mark them as among the most sought-after targets of gruesome Taliban violence and intimidation. "We've had prison soldiers attacked in the market on their way home from work. People watch their patterns," said Cater.
The combination of low pay and high risk has made it difficult to recruit and retain more educated security force officers. Sarposa is under constant threat from insurgents, with more than half of its 564 inmates alleged Taliban extremists.
The prison is still undergoing reconstruction following a co-ordinated attack by Taliban militants in June.
About 800 prisoners escaped after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled tanker truck outside Sarposa's main entrance, creating a gaping hole. An estimated 80 Taliban attackers, many brought in on motorcycles, then attacked from all sides in a well-timed assault using rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns and AK-47s.
About 15 police officers and guards were killed in the ensuing battle, which lasted about 20 minutes. Prison security has since been beefed up, with, among other improvements, the addition of thick blast walls to protect the compound.
In interviews, many of the guards said they were pleased with the opportunity to get an education while also earning a salary. Being able to read or write is, by law in Afghanistan, the only way to get promoted within the security forces.
Most of the frontline guards have either never been to school, or had their studies disrupted as a result of conflict and severe poverty.
After attending classes for two weeks, Kazim Agha, 20, has learned how to write his own name, as well as the name his father and a friend. "It is very difficult to write, but I am trying," he said, according to a translator.
A similar literacy program is also set to begin with Afghan National Police officers working in Kandahar City. Canada is funding a year-long $75,000 pilot project with the aim of reaching between 200 and 240 uniformed police officers.
Currently, literacy rates among ANP in Kandahar range from about five to 20 per cent, depending on the district, said RCMP Const. Jeff Hirsch, a Nova Scotia-based police mentor in Kandahar.
"Obviously that hampers any ability for the Afghan police to achieve any kind of international policing standards that we would consider," he said. |