INDIA

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN

BY MEETALI HANDA

NOTION PRESS

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

ISBN: 978-1-63781-391-1

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

DEDICATED TO MY DAD

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

PREFACE

Administration of prisons and reformation of prisoners has been a matter of intense debate and sharp criticism at various public fora. Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the recent years has come down heavily on the inhuman and degrading conditions in prisons. In many states, the problems of dilapidated prison structure, overcrowding and congestion, increasing proportion of undertrial prisoners, inadequacy of prison staff, lack of proper care and treatment of prisoners, etc., have been engaging the attention of the press and social activists. With a growing advocacy for the protection of human rights in the various walks of lives, the plight of prisoners has emerged as a critical issue of public policy The present book comprises of preface and six other chapters including introduction. It will give me a great pleasure and satisfaction if the work in spite of its short comings, fulfils the expectations of those interested in the field. To this end a lot of reference have been made for those who want to delve deeper into particular aspects thereof.

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

CHAPTER- I An Introduction to Prison Administration, & Prison Reforms in India Introduction The term prisoner means any person who has committed a crime or any act which is prohibited by the law of the land and the person is kept in jail or confinement for committing the crime. The word prisoner means any person for a time being in prison as a result of any requirement imposed by a court or otherwise that he be detained in legal custody. A prisoner is also called inmate who is forcefully deprived of his personal liberty. A prison is also known as a correctional facility, jail, penitentiary, detention centre or remand centre in which the prisoners are kept and denied many freedoms under the order of the state. Changes in the society demand changes in the social order and thus the law towards the prisoners and the functions of the prisons kept on changing from custodial, to coercive, to corrective.

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

Earlier the outlook of the society towards prisoners and punishments to them was evil and barbaric. In the present scenario Indian system is based on reformative and rehabilitative strategy of punishment. The Indian prison system had seen many ups and downs throughout different eras, like from early India to British era and to the present law of the land.2 Today India is governed by the Indian Prison Act, 1894 and the rules and regulations for administrations and management of prisons as specified in the Prison manuals of the states. Today irrespective to the fact that a person is a criminal he can`t be deprived of his basic fundamental right. When an offender stays for long in a jail, a process- what is termed by Robert Sommer as deculturation or what is called by some other as desocialisation-occurs. This is the process of incapable of managing certain features of daily life in the outside world, if and when he gets back to it. Thus, the prison reform is very important to make prisoner capable of stable enough to be accepted back in the society.

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

1.1

The Human Right Watch

In their paper in 1991 found that the prison sanction (which in the west grew apace with modernization) has not achieved centrality within India; incarceration is probably not more extensive now than it was under British rule. Numbers often give a false sense of precision in India qualifier to any estimate but they do delineate the boundaries of the prison world. The most prestigious and thorough investigation of the prisons, the All India Committee on Jail Reform (under the chairmanship of the retired Supreme Court justice, Anand Mulla), found 1220 facilities in the country as of December 31, 1980, of which 822 (67 percent) were lock ups, and almost all of the others, state prisons; together they held some 160,000 inmates. The Indian states, it is true, vary enormously in their record-keeping skills and are notoriously lackadaisical about responding to inquiries from

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

national commissions. Yet, even if the figure were off by a factor of two or three, India would still have one of the lowest rates of incarceration in the world. (The United States, with the highest known rate, has less than one-third of India's population, and incarcerates more than six times as many people as were actually counted in the Indian system a decade ago.) This conclusion is buttressed by the fact that with all due allowance for overcrowding, India does not have the prison buildings to hold that many more inmates. More, the overall lengths of prison stays are quite short (again by American standards). Of the 160,000 inmates ten years ago, 92,000 were under trials, and their periods of confinement while they awaited their turn in court, were almost always less than a year (92percent). Of the 59,000 inmates already convicted of crimes, 32 percent served less than one year; 16 percent one to five years; 8 percent five to ten years, and 44 percent over ten years. Thus, the prisons did have a cadre of long-termers, 26,000 in number, but they were a small fraction (16 percent) of all persons incarcerated. Third, and perhaps most telling, the criminal system, as we have seen, relies extensively on summary justice. To the extent that

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

police (or soldiers) beat or kill putative offenders, imprisonment becomes a superfluous sanction. If the numbers of inmates is low, it is because punishment is often meted out in rough and ready fashion. As one would then expect, prisoners are drawn from the lowest classes, and undoubtedly the lowest castes, although contemporary. The All India Committee observed that a majority of the inmates came from the "underprivileged sections of society," noting that "persons who have means and influence generally manage to remain beyond the reach of the law even if they are involved in violation of the law. The figures compiled by other investigations confirm this impression: one study in the state of Uttar Pradesh (a relatively backward region except for the area around New Delhi), reported that 63 percent of prisoners were low income (earning less than 80 rupees, or less than U.S. 5$ a month); only 1.5 percent earned over 335 rupees or about U.S. 20$ a month. Fifty percent of the UP inmates were illiterate; only 10 percent had over 10 years of schooling. Along-with this Physical and psychological torture resulting from overcrowding, lack of space for segregation of sick, stinking toilets for want of

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

proper supply of water, lack of proper bedding, restrictions on movement resulting from shortage of staff, parading of women through men's wards for lack of proper separation, non- production of under trial prisoners in courts, inadequate medical facilities, neglect in the grant of parole, rejection of premature release on flimsy grounds, and several such afflictions has resulted not from any malfeasance of the prison staff but from the collective neglect of the whole system .Human Rights Watch 2001. The overcrowding, lack of physical and mental activities, poor sanitary facilities, lack of decent health care, all increase the likelihood of health problems in prisons. Kazi et al (2009).4Mentioned disease screening and intervention, given the conditions of poverty and drug addictio It is surprising and indeed shocking that despite the large prison population in India, there is a complete dearth of published information regarding the prevalence of health problems in prisons. An exception is a small study in the Central Jail at Hindalga in the Belgaum (the district of Karnataka) 850 prisoners were evaluated. Scholars, policymakers, and

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

practitioners have recently begun to pay serious attention to the issues of prison reintegration. 1.2

Classification of Prison

At the when crime meant punishing criminals, there was no need for separation of prison and everyone was kept inside the same prison without any discrimination of sex or age which made life more horrible than death itself. It was during the end of 19th century when the idea of different prison came in the mind of penologist and it is since been firmly established. The main objectives of classification of prisoners were:

I. To separate different type of offenders according to sex, and nature of punishment. II. Avoid moral contamination and maintain security inside the prison III. To provide training and for reformative purposes.6

PRISON ADMINISTRATION AND REFORMS IN INDIA

Indian jails are made and the offenders are confided according to the view of the objectives, the different types of Indian prisons areCentral jails- The offenders who are sentenced for their crime for more 2 years are confined in central jails. These jails also have rehabilitation facilities. District Jails- The district jails are situated in the headquarters of the district and sub- divided in categories. In district jails offenders are imprisoned for three to six months. Sub-jails- Sub Jails are smaller institutions situated at a sub-divisional level. The offender is imprisoned for 3or less months. Open Jails- These are prisons with minimum security, and the prisoners with good behaviour are allowed in these prisons to work for living. Today 17 states have jurisdiction for open prison in India. Special Jails- These jails have highest amount of security as only particular class of offender convicted for offences like terrorism, habitual offender, violent crimes, grave violation of prison discipline are kept in these prisons. Kerala has highest number of special jails (16).