454 words essay on the Prison reforms in India

Prison reforms

The first committee on prisons, called the Indian Jails Committee, was appointed in 1836. It gave its report in 1838. It drew attention to the existing horrible conditions and corruption prevalent in the lower staff, but, it did not give any suggestions for the improvement of conditions.

It rejected education, moral lectures, and rewards to inmates and laid stress on hard and monotonous life in jail, i.e., on retributive punishment.

The first central jail was established at Agra in 1846, while the first superintendent, jails was appointed in 1850. On the recommendations of the 1864 Committee, two significant changes were made: one, Jail Manual was framed in 1870, and two, segregation system was introduced in prisons, segregating males from females, adults from children, and ‘civil’ offenders from ‘criminal’ offenders.

On the recommendations of the 1889 Committee, the under-trials were segregated from the convicted criminals and the habitual offenders from the casual offenders. The 1892 Committee recommended nine hours work in jail.

But, the most significant recommendations were given by the 1919 Jails Committee and their implementation in 1920 completely overhauled the prison system in India.

The two important recommendations made by the 1919 committee which could not be accepted by the government immediately but which were implemented after a few years were: introducing the probation system (i.e., suspending sentence and releasing offenders by courts on certain conditions without sending them to jails) and establishing Borstal Schools for the adolescent offenders.

The last committee called Mulla Committee or All India Jail Reform Committee-was appointed by the Government of India in 1980 which submitted its report in 1983. The recommendations of this committee were not considered by the government to be revolutionary in any way.

Some provincial (state) governments had also appointed committees for introducing reforms in prisons in their states: Punjab appointed such a committee in 1925, Uttar Pradesh in 1946, Rajasthan in 1962, Bihar in 1972, Tamil Nadu in 1978, and Kerala in 1991.

The Central Government appointed one UNO Expert (Walter Reckless) in 1951 for studying conditions in Indian jails and for suggesting reforms. Reckless’s main suggestion was to make changes in the old jail manual.