INTRODUCTION:

The role of prisons has radically changed over the years and now They are no longer regarded as mere custodial institutions. The Emphasis has thus shifted from custody to training and re-education of prisoners. The Prison is an age old institution. The word "Prison" connotes "to seize" and "cage". The oxford English dictionary defines "Prison is a place, properly arranged and equipped for the reception of persons who by legal process, are committed to it for safe custody while in trial or for punishment". The Prison administration of a country is a function of several variables pertaining to socio-economic conditions and practical considerations. The socio-economic conditions vary from one country to another and have immense influence on the plans, programs and policies of a country’s prison administration.

The purposes of a country’s prison administration are determined from its financial capabilities and by social and moral consciousness of the community concerned. Originally, Prison was conceived as a place of detention to keep offenders pending trials and ultimate punishment. In course of time what was thought of as transit point become a terminus, and imprisonment was regarded as an end in itself. Lord Macaulay, in his famous ‘Minutes of 1835’ described that "Imprisonment is the punishment to which we must chiefly trust". He pleaded for the establishment of such regulations, at the same time, prevented it from being attended by any circumstances shocking to humanity. In addition to custodial functions the prison became a penal agency, the chief aim of which was to destroy the so called criminal streak among convicted offenders. A retributive-cum-deterrent philosophy, had been the underlying policy of prison administration in India. To these ends, prisons have had a torment-cum-terror regime with significant repressive features like isolation, cells and unproductive rigorous labour. Contemporarily, the repressive-punitive policy is giving way to a philosophy of correction and rehabilitation of offenders.

The Universal impact of this thinking is reflected in the United Nations convention adopted by the General Assembly on December 18,1966 Act 10(3) of the Convention, provides the penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners, the essentials aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation. The open camps, like Sanganer open prison in Rajasthan, near Jaipur, where prisoners are allowed to stay with their families can best serve as half-way-house before their return to society. Open camps provides opportunity for greater community contact to the prisoners, it helps them in their rehabilitation after the completion of their sentence. Therefore to ensure scientific and humanitarian administration of prisons in accordance to the modern philosophy of reformation and rehabilitation, it is imperative that the necessary facilities, structures personnel, legislation and processes, be ensured.

Another example of Open-air Jail is the Atpadi Open Jails in Pune, which spread over 61 acres, is a unique experiment to rehabilitate the prisoners. The idea of setting up Open Jails is to restore the dignity of people-a chance to live a normal life after release. At Atpadi the families of prisoners are permitted to stay with them. This sort of Prison gives to the prisoners a new meaning in life-a determination to dream. It poses trust and responsibilities that can hold prisoners.

TYPES OF JAILS IN INDIA:

1. Types of prisons

Prison establishments in India comprise 8 categories of jails. The most common and standard jail institutions are Central Jails, District Jails and Sub Jails. The other types of jail establishments are Women Jails, Borstal Schools, Open Jails and Special Jails.

1.1 Central jail:

The criteria for a jail to be categorized as a Central Jail varies from state to state. However, the common feature observed throughout India is that prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for a long period (more than 2 years) are confined in the Central Jails, which have larger capacity in comparison to other jails. These jails also have rehabilitation facilities.

1.2 District jail:

District jails serve as the main prisons in States/UTs where there are no Central Jails.

1.3 Sub jail:

Sub jails are smaller institutions situated at a sub-divisional level in the States.

2. Women's Jail:

Jails built to exclusively house women prisoners. Most of the staff in such jails are usually women.

3. Borstal School:

Borstal Schools are a type of youth detention centre and are used exclusively for the imprisonment of minors or juveniles. The primary objective of Borstal Schools is to ensure care, welfare and rehabilitation of young offenders in an environment suitable for children and keep them away from contaminating atmosphere of the prison. The juveniles in conflict with law detained in Borstal Schools are provided various vocational training and education with the help of trained teachers. The emphasis is given on the education, training and moral influence conducive for their reformation and prevention of crime.

4. Open jail:

Open jails are minimum security prisons. Prisoners with good behavior satisfying certain norms prescribed in the prison rules are admitted in open prisons. Prisoners, here, are engaged in agricultural activities.

5. Special jail:

Special jails are high security facilities that have specialized arrangements for keeping offenders and prisoners who are convicted of terrorism, insurgency and violent crimes. Special jail means any prison provided for the confinement of a particular class or particular classes of prisoners which are broadly as follows:

1. Prisoners who have committed serious violations of prison discipline.

2. Prisoners showing tendencies towards violence and aggression.

3. Difficult discipline cases of habitual offenders.

4. Difficult discipline cases from a group of professional/ organized criminals.

6. Other jails:

Jails that do not fall into the categories discussed above, fall under the category of Other Jails. Three states - Karnataka, Kerala & Maharashtra have 1 other jail each in their jurisdiction. No other state/UT has another jail at the end of 2015.

Types of prison inmates:

Prison inmates lodged in Indian jails are categorised as Convicts, Under-trials and Detenues. A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". An under-trial is a person who is currently on trial in a court of law. A detenue is any person held in custody.

Prison inmates lodged in Indian jails in relation to non-Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes are classified as civil prisoners. They consist of Convicts and Under-trials.

Problems of prisoner in jail in india:

The Constitution of India, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the StandardMinimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners clearly specify the standards of treatment withprisoners on trial. But realities in jails transmit an entirely different tune. Given Below are some challenges that every under-

trialprisoner goes through in Indian jails –

1) Prison violence –

The worst form of Prison violence was witnessed in Khatri v. State of Bihar where the police had blinded 80 suspected criminals by puncturing their eyes by needles and dousing them by acid. In fact in the case Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration that the court had already issued a writ directing the authorities that the prisoners shall not be subjected to physical mishandling by jail officials and they should be given adequate medical and health facilities.

2) Criminalizing effect of a prison –

With hardened criminals being around and in the absence of scientific classification methods to separate them from others, contamination of first time, circumstantial and young offenders into full-fledged criminals occurs very frequently.

3) Health problems–

Most of the prisons face problems of overcrowding and shortage of adequate space to lodge prisoners in safe and healthy conditions. Most of the prisoners found in prisons come from socio-economically disadvantaged sections of the society where disease, malnutrition and absence of medical services are prevalent. When such people are cramped in with each other in unhealthy conditions, infectious and communicable diseases spread easily.

4) Mentally ill prisoners –

Though miniscule, mentally ill prisoners constitute another percentage of population, which is largely ignored and forgotten by both the outside world and those inside. But given the nature of the illness and prevailing social attitudes, they form the most hapless victims of human rights violations.

5) Drug abuse–

After Murder, Attempt to murder and other serious anti-personal offences, people booked under anti-drug laws constitute a substantial percentage of the prison population.

6)Effect on the families of prisoners–

Those imprisoned are unable to look after their families. In the absence of the main bread winner, the family is many a time forced into destitution with children going astray. This combined with the social stigmatization that they face, leads to circumstances propelling children towards delinquency and exploitation by others. It is an inexorable circle.

Jail reforms and rehabilitation:

Recreational, Facilities.

All Religious and National festivals are celebrated by one and all inside the prisons. On Republic Day and Independence Day National Flag is hoisted in all the prisons. All religious festivals like Holi, Diwali, Id, Guru Parv, X-mass etc. are celebrated by one and all. On Rakshbandhan Day sisters/ brothers are allowed to meet the inmates and tie Rakhies. This is a big occasion which helps the jail administration to convey to the prisoners that "We Care".

Educational, Facilities:

Both adult and formal education arrangements have been made for prisoners. Educational activities are looked after with the help of Government resources as well as NGO's participation. Study Centres of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Delhi are established at Tihar Prisons. Computer training centers are also working in the Prisons for imparting computer education to the prisoners.

Sports Activities:

Sport activities form an integral part all management. Inter Jail sport competitions are organized in different games which are christened as Tihar Olympic. The games like cricket, Badminton, Volley ball, Basket Ball, Table Tennis, Chess, Kho-Kho, Kabaddi, Tug of War etc. are regularity played.

Yoga and Meditation:

For cleansing and disciplining mind, Yoga and meditation classes were started in a big way with the help of various voluntary organisations.

Legal Aid Activities:

A legal Aid Cell is functioning in each Jail which is being visited by the advocates deployed by Delhi State Legal Service Authority as well as Delhi High Court Legal Service Committee. It is also being ensured that every eligible prisoner is able to file his appeal at the State expenses and such prisoners are being regularly counseled by the prison authorities as well as by the visiting legal aid counsel.

Societal Participation in Reformation:

As a part of community participation in the reformation and social integration of prisoners after release, a large number of respectable members of non-Governmental organisations, Retired Major General, Professors of I.I.T Delhi, Eminent Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Principals and Teachers of various educational institutions have been conducting various activities in the Prisons. These NGOs have had very sobering and positive impact on the psyche of the prisoners, who have been shown the positive and constructive approach to life after interaction with them. These prisoners are also rehabilitated by them after their release.

CONCLUSION:

The days are gone when prisons were dungeons where prisoners were lodged to pass their days in dark cells. The prisons are no more the institutions designed to achieve only the retributive and deterrent aspects of punishment. Prisons are now the places, where the inmates are lodged not as a forgotten or forsaking members of the society but as human beings who have to go out in to their surroundings as well behaving as reformed persons. For a prisoner, the imprisonment itself is a punishment and thus, prisons are expected to be places of rehabilitation, not places where extra punishment is added resulting into the violation of their human rights the rate of imprisonment in our country is very low.

REFERENCE:

1. Indian Prisons; Towards reformation, rehabilitation and re-socialization edited by K. Jaishankar, 2014.

2. VidyaBhushan, Prison Administration in India, S. Chand & Co., (1970).

3. AmarendraMohanty, Indian Prison System, Ashish Publishing House, New Delhi, (1990).

4. IndraJeet Singh, “Indian Prison: A Sociological Enquiry”, Concept Publishing House, Delhi, (1979).

5. Nitai Roy Chowdhury, “Indian Prison Laws and Correction of Prisoners”, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi, (2002).

6. Govt. of India, Model Prison Manual.

Received on 13.10.2018 Modified on 12.11.2018

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(1): 189-192.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00032.9