Prison reforms, huh! It’s India

Prison reforms, huh! It’s India

Human rights activists stress dire need for rehabilitation, better living conditions and vocational training for prisoners

Pranali Lotlikar @plotlikar

Does a criminal deserve a shot at reformation? Or is punishment more effective? While everyone today has a say on life terms and death penalties, rehabilitation from a human rights perspective is rarely discussed. What happens to a criminal after spending years behind bars, the living conditions of prisons, are never brought to the fore. Human rights activists and lawyers have been stressing on a dire need for better prison reforms in the country. Several experts claim that the attitude of prison authorities, the rigorous infliction of hardships on convicts and undertrials, should be eliminated from the system. They believe that jails should focus on reforming prisoners rather than punishing them. Activists insist on the need for a major change in the vocational training of prisoners and their rehabilitation. It is only then that one can think of bringing reforms in prisons. Dr Vijay Raghavan, professor and chairperson, Centre for Criminology and Justice, School of Social Work, TISS, said that to bring in prison reforms, there is a need to implement the recommendations laid down by the Justice Mulla Committee in 1983, the Justice Krishna Iyer Committee report in 1987 and the Model Prison Manual, 2003. “If the prison manual is brought in tune with the recommendations of these reports, it would bring far-reaching reforms to the prison system,” said Dr Raghavan, who is also project director of Prayas, a field action project where TISS works for the rehabilitation of prisoners in Maharashtra. The professor also said that the financial and infrastructure and human resource requirements of the prison department are ignored since the government views it as a non-productive sector. “The government invests in several sectors like education and health. Investing in the education sector is seen as leading to a rise in the human resource index, while investing in the health sector is seen as a move to improve the health of people. However, the state feels that there would be no benefit from investing in the prison department. If the state invests in legal aid, trained correctional staff and relevant vocational training programs in prisons, it will help in rehabilitation of prisoners,” he said. Dr Raghavan also suggested that the authorities should work on a plan to provide government-recognised certificates to prisoners who have undergone vocational training inside the prison. “Once prisoners are released, even if they are trained in vocational courses, they are not provided with a certificate so they can apply for jobs. The government should emphasise on giving prisoners training certificates,” he said. Yug Chaudhry, a human rights lawyer, also emphasized on the need for the state to implement new vocational courses in prisons. “The prison authorities still train inmates in skills like carpentry, carpet making etc, which is of hardly any use when the person is out of the jail. It does not really help in reforming the person,” Chaudhry said. Filmmaker and human rights activist Anand Patwardhan spoke about languishing undertrails. “Prison authorities should realise that undertrial prisoners are innocent till proven guilty. They waste years behind bars awaiting trial.” 2/2 Counting criminals 2011: 477 Convicts on death row lodged in different prisons across India-12 women,465 men. 68,935 Prisoners across Indian jails sentenced to  life term: