Committee Report on Women Prisoners, 1989: 100-102)

1. No discrimination:

There shall be no discrimination among prisoners on grounds of sex, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, and birth or other status. Prison authorities are supposed to respect the religious beliefs and moral precepts of the community to which a prisoner belongs.

2. Separation:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Different categories of prisoners shall be kept in separate institutions or part of the institutions on the basis of their age, sex, criminal record and other circumstances.

3. Corporal punishment:

Corporal punishment by placing in dark cell, and all cruel, inhuman, degrading punishments shall be completely prohibited.

4. Hygienic conditions:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Due consideration to hygienic conditions for living should be made. The food served must be of nutritional value. Services of qualified medical officers having some knowledge of psychiatry should also be made available.

5. Under trials:

Under trials should be separated from the convicts. Young untried prisoners should also be kept separate from untried adults.

6. Social relations and aftercare:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Before the completion of the sentence, it is desirable that necessary steps should be taken to ensure for the prisoner a gradual return to normal life in society. He should be permitted to correspond with and meet relatives from time to time.

Constitutional/Statutory Rights of Prisoners

The Constitution of India incorporates certain rights to prisoners. Besides, statutes like Prisons Act 1894, Prisoners’ Act 1900, and Prisoners’ Attendance in Courts Act 1955 also confer some rights on prisoners. Some of these constitutional/statutory rights are:

1. Double jeopardy:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

No person shall be punished/prosecuted for the same offence more than once.

2. Testimony:

Jail authorities cannot compel prisoners to give testimony which is likely to expose them to criminal consequences.

3. Physical protection:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

It is the duty of prison authorities (on behalf of the state) to protect the person physically. The prisoners cannot be kept in prison in the open, exposed to sun, rain or cold. The authorities will provide accommodation in prisons.

In case of overcrowding or outbreak of an epidemic, the authorities shall provide temporary accommodation. The medical officer shall be responsible for sanitary conditions. The medical officer is also required to examine the new inmates and shall advise the jailor regarding the nature of work to be carried out by the prisoner.

4. Separation:

Male and female prisoners shall be kept in separate prisons or separate parts of the same building.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

5. Solitary confinement:

Solitary confinement is used to ensure the safe custody of other prisoners or is inflicted as a punishment. Prisoners in solitary cells must be examined by medical officer at least once a day if confined for a period of more than twenty-four hours.

6. Under-trials:

Under-trials may be permitted to have their own clothing, food and other accessories from their own sources and are entitled to be permitted to contact these sources at reasonable hours.

7. Civil prisoners:

Civil prisoners are also to be treated like the under-trials. They are allowed to work in jail according to their will-

8. Work:

A criminal who is sentenced to labour shall not be allowed to work for more than nine hours a day. The medical officer shall examine such prisoners every fortnight to record the effect of won on their health.

A new perspective

How to restructure prisons so that they may resocialise offenders? Should we shift towards more liberal regimes or towards more custodial control? This author’s contention is that there should be reconciliation between the goals of custody and reform.

The following measures may significantly contribute to the adjustment of offender^ in prisons, and prisons functioning as correctional institutions rather than as ‘factories of crime’:

Short-term offenders (getting less than six months’ imprisonment) should not be kept in prisons. In India, at present about four-fifths prisoners are those who are awarded less than six months’ imprisonment. Short-term imprisonment only stigmatises persons.

Such offenders can easily be released on probation. At present, only 8 to 10 per cent of offenders, eligible to be released on probation, are getting the benefit of probation services in our country, whereas in the United States these services are used to the extent of 60 to 65 per cent. Why can’t probation system in India be extensively used by the courts to deal with these offenders? This will also reduce overcrowding in prisons.

Many prisons are overcrowded, i.e., the strength of inmates is much more than the sanctioned strength. For example, in Uttar Pradesh against the sanctioned strength of about 33,000 inmates in 67 jails in the state, there were 45,000 inmates in 1998 out of whom about 6,000 were convicts and 39,000 were undertrials. The Tihar Jail, Delhi which has a capacity of 2,000 inmates, had 8,000 inmates in 1999 (The Hindustan Times, April 25, 2000).

The most important problem is that of classification of prisoners. The main objectives of classifying prisoners till recently were: to segregate different types of offenders, to categorise prisoners for security purposes, to prevent moral contamination, to control inmate-inmate relations, and to maintain discipline.

Thus, classification was done primarily for administrative purposes. Now what is needed is classification for training and reformative purposes. It is, therefore, necessary that some rational and scientific methods may be introduced for classifying prisoners in jails.

Effective social work services may be provided within prisons (say, through Prison Welfare Officers) to ease inmates’ worries about their families.

Legal services may be provided by voluntary organisations to under-trial prisoners to help them with problems other than those for which they are being detained. This would not entail any extra financial expenditure but would require only organisation.

Prisoners who want to continue their education and obtain university degrees may be provided the necessary facilities, including a quiet place for study.

A programme of services for the under-trial prisoners may be instituted. Programmes may be designed to help them with their occupational, family, legal, medical, psychiatric, and other sub problems. Help of this kind would be of immense value to them when in jail with nothing much to do but to laze and be damned.

The furlough system and some community resources for the convicted offenders could also be introduced.

Prisons may provide the opportunity for discussion groups in which prisoners, assisted by professionals, or maybe ex-offenders, might discuss problems of mutual interest. For prisoners with problem of drugs, etc. special provision may be made for such assistance.

More offenders may be released on parole.

There is too much corruption in jails. It is not difficult for rich and influential inmates to get good food, mobile phone, alcohol, drugs, TV, facility of meeting visitors at all times, and so forth.

It is claimed that when ex-Chief Minister of Bihar was kept in Beur jail in Patna during April, 2000, he was getting all facilities which any rich and influential politician outside the jail enjoyed.

Even other inmates were getting much better food because of this WIP prisoner. It is reported that he even used jail superintendent’s chair while meeting with important politician visitors. Homosexuality is also reported from a large number of jails in the country.

A case was reported in April, 2000 from one jail where a young prisoner was killed by some adult inmates when he refused to cooperate for sexual relations.

The Central Home Minister gave a statement in Rajya Sabha on June 14, 1998 that prison administration is the responsibility of the state governments and the Centre can give only some assistance for the modernisation of jails.

If facilities as available in some jails in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra are not stopped, jails will cease to be viewed as penal and correctional institutions.

Obviously, implementation of the above programmes to convert prisons into corrective centres cannot be accomplished without involving some extra expenditure. But until that is accomplished, prisons will continue to function as human warehouses.

It is important to strengthen correctional centres because in the long run the result will be both real cost savings and a reduction in crime. Financial cost is, of course, not the only cost. Even more important is the cost to society and to jailed persons in terms of the devastating effect incarceration has on its victims.

In view of the prevailing inefficiency and corruption, neglect and indifference and partisan politics and inhumanity to man in prisons, the time is ripe for fundamental changes.

Coulson and Riddel (1970) have said that there exists a structural dialectic of social structure and social consciousness. In other words, there is a complex two-way process in which goals, ideas and beliefs influence and are influenced by the social structure. Applying this to prison, it might be said that prison relations are patterned by structural determinants.

Meanings and motives of prisoners are socially generated and sustained in ways of which prisoners they may be unaware. As such, along with structural changes, interpersonal relations in prisons should be so permitted to develop that prisoners’ own motives and meanings may get importance in their behaviour.