K.V.

REDDY
PRESIDENT
ALL INDIA PRISON OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
E-Mail: kvreddydsp@yahoo.com
Mobile: 09849904733 / 09440060055
www.poaap.com

Victims of apathy
Commitment needed to reform prisons

IT is only when a jailbreak occurs that the issue of prison reforms comes to the fore. The
low priority given to prisoners is reflected in the general indifference and apathy towards
prison administration. The recent disturbances in Jalandhar jail have once again focused
attention on prison administration and the need for jail reforms.
Prison disturbances in some countries have led to drastic changes in jail administration.
Though the prison riots in Manchester (UK) in 1991 led to the Lord Justice Woolf Inquiry
Report which brought out significant changes in the UK’s prison administration, the same
cannot be said in the case of India. The approach there was one of openness, transparency
and willingness to acknowledge that things are wrong in the system and the need for course
corrections. Such an approach is totally missing in our country.
In the seventies, when prisoners in Charles Street Jails, Boston (US), voiced protests over
squalid conditions, a judge spent a night inside the jail to get a first-hand feel of the
environment and ordered the closure of the jail. If grievances are not properly addressed,
the only way prisoners can bring them to notice is through disruptive behaviour.
The jailbreaks in Dantwara, Chhattisgarh, Burail in Chandigarh, prison disturbances in Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh or custodial deaths in the Tihar jail have focused attention on prison
reforms. Inquiry reports into these incidents are shrouded in secrecy and no significant
systemic improvement has taken place. Those in charge know what is wrong. Yet, why after
diagnosis, the disease is allowed to continue? India has one of the lowest rates of
imprisonment, 30 per 1 lakh population — the most depressing state of affairs in its prisons.
The present prison infrastructure is ill-suited to meet the basic needs, let alone the
Standard Minimum Rules in Treatment of Offenders. Our prisons are badly overcrowded and
over 70 per cent of the inmates are undertrials. Overcrowding exacerbates the pains of
imprisonment and adds to the administrative problems. It also raises the collective
frustration of the inmates being locked up and not having a place to sleep or being given a
sleeping place near the stinking, leaking toilet. Taking turns to sleep and spending countless
nights will be dehumanising.
No privacy, no dignity and the hope of early release may fade soon. If one is an undertrial,
the time period is without a calendar. Though undertrials don’t have to work, such confined
idleness makes a dent on their personality. Judges should know the costs — economic,
social and psychological — of incarceration. There must also be cheaper sentencing options
available to them, community service scheme being one such alternative.
The system of inspection is to ensure that things are in order. Judges have to inspect the
prisons every month and give their reports. So too are the District Magistrates and the Chief
Medical Officers. A joint inspection is also supposed to take place. Still, it seems everyone is
caught napping. The rules are there, but they are hardly acted upon. What action is taken
based on the inspection is rarely known.
Even routine inspection reports are not tabled in the legislatures. In the UK, a specialised
team does thematic inspections and the report is tabled in Parliament. This results in
constant improvement based on a system of accountability and transparency.
Overcrowding affects the prisoners and the staff too. There is a perceived loss of control and
helplessness in the staff. No scientific classification of offenders can take place in an
overcrowded jail. There is almost a hands up approach, which can be seen also in the
complaints of corruption, inequality and the use of drugs in the prisons. Prisons have a
parallel economy behind the closed walls.
Moreover, negligence, connivance and corruption escalate when there are many people to
be managed by a few employees. The lower staff does not get transferred and the constant
contact with criminals leaves its impact on them. They say that they are in prison for life.
There is need for a committed leadership with a fixed tenure to improve the system. Dr
Kiran Bedi showed how jails can be improved when a prison posting is not viewed as a
punishment posting.
The inadequacies in Punjab’s prisons have been highlighted time and again. It is also
essential that the functioning of the prisons becomes more transparent. Unfortunately,
research on the state’s prisons is closed to public scrutiny. Most problem situations could
have been avoided if early warnings were promptly heeded.
The prison reforms consists of modernising and improving the physical infrastructure in
terms of increasing the occupancy by way of improved technology and security systems,
improved kitchens and mulaqat system and better medical facilities. It may come as a
shock to the progressive state of Punjab that while Orissa has fully utilised the Government
of India’s prison modernisation grant, it is way behind other states.
However, building more prisons is not the only answer. Society has to question whom are
we sending to prison? Will the jail help reform petty offenders? The police power to arrest
under Sections 107 and 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure must be used with restraint.
The other part of prison reforms consists of the software which includes improving human
resources such as development of prison staff and correctional and training programmes for
prison inmates. Human resource development is crucial for any organisation. The prison
administration has a crucial role to play in this regard. A Model Prisons Manual is a pressing
necessity and the prison organisation itself needs to have a vision and a mission statement
for service.
The Prison Act (1984) is out of sync with today’s scenario. Though the Bureau of Police
Research and Development, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, has compiled the Model Prison
Manual in 2005, most states have not yet adopted it. Even the Punjab Jail Manual (1996) is
outdated. This shows how laws and rules are made without the application of mind. Thus,
any new legislation has to be drafted with wider consultations and debate.
We must open up the prison system. The civil society should be associated with it. The
changes can be implemented only with a commitment — of policy and resources. Ultimately,
it is in the societal interest to constantly seek ways to reform the jails. n