PROJECT ON

ANALYZING THE OPEN PRISON SYSTEM:

DEFINITION, ORIGIN, INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE & ADVANTAGES OF THE
SYSTEM
 BACKGROUND

Every person who commits a crime is deemed to punishment but this does not mean that he
needs to repay it with his life. And thus he should be given a second chance to a better living
and an opportunity to build a life of honour and respect.

The study of criminology describes various theories of punishments and the most useful in
this regard is the ‘Reformative Theory’. Also with time, and the development in the
criminological thinking there is a new scope for a fresh approach, as discussed under the
reformative approach where in the reformation of offenders to law abiding members of
society. And the concepts of parole (correctional device for reformation) and probation
(rehabilitation of offenders in the community) are recommended as the best measures to
reclaim offenders to the society as reformed persons.

Thus the governments pursuing the same objective have come up with a concept of ‘Open
Jails’. Though the concept has been in existence for quite some time, but it is still developing
and introducing new junctures to a better life of prisoners.1

DEFINITION

An open prison (open jail) is an informal description applied to any penal establishment in
which the prisoners are trusted to serve their sentences with minimal supervision and
perimeter security and are not locked up in prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take
up employment while serving their sentence.
In the UK, open prisons are often part of a rehabilitation plan for prisoners moved from
closed prisons.2 They may be designated "training prisons" and are only for prisoners
considered a low risk to the public. The idea of an open prison is often criticised by members
of the public and politicians.3 However, prisoners do not have complete freedom and are only
allowed to leave the premises for specific purposes, such as going to an outside job.4

MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF PRISONS

U.K. in the 1930’s and the United States around the 1940’s first established the system of
open jails. And Sir Alexander Palerson, the member Secretary of the Prison Commission of
U.K. made outstanding contribution to the development of the system.

1
Stutsman, J.O. –The prison staff in the Annals of American Academy of political and social science,
1931, P.68
2
https://www.gov.uk/life-in-prison/arriving-at-prison; Visited on 14/09/16 at 0725h
3
Philip Davies, "It is completely ludicrous that a serving life-sentence prisoner is even in an open
prison", BBC, 05 May 2014
4
Erwin James, "Why life in an open prison is no holiday camp", The Guardian, 13 January 2011. Visited
on 14/9/2016 at 0728h
 The basic assumptions supporting the theory were :-

 A person is sent to prison as a punishment and not for punishment.

 If the prisoners are given certain freedoms and liberty, they would respond favorably and
would not betray the confidence displayed on them.
With time the system started to develop and advanced towards new horizons. And the closing
of the 19th century witnessed the beginning of a new phase, as an emerging concept of a
semi-open prison institution came into view. The first ever prison of this kind was established
in Switzerland by the name of Witzwill. The feedback followed appreciating the same.

OPEN PRISONS IN THE EARLY 1900S

During the 19th century America had open air prisons in which the prisoners who were near
to finishing of their sentence would be transferred as laborers, under supervision and close
watch of guards. Some prison camps were also organized in Massachusetts and California
around 1915. And a farm type institution with suitable facilities for work was proposed near
the town of Chino in South California, under the guidance of State Board of Prison Directors.
However the idea of minimum security did not settle with the existing Prison Board, finally
in 1938 a new Prison Board was proposed supporting the objective.5

 No law, procedure or system of correction should deprive any offender of the hope and
possibility of his ultimate return to the society as a responsible citizen. And he must be
extended every opportunity to raise his educational level, improve vocational skills and add
to his information meaningful knowledge about the world and the society to which he
belongs.
 All the employable offenders should have a right to an opportunity of being engaged in
productive work.
 In the course of open peno-institutional treatment, the offender continues as a member of the
correctional community so that he can develop within him the spirit of energetic, resourceful
and organized citizen participation.6

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

With time it was observed that prisonisation may only be appropriate for a certain category of
offenders, as imprisonment had a drastic effect on some offenders who instead of becoming
useful citizens become tough and frustrated criminals with rather enhanced competence for
crime. Thus open and semi-open prisons, work release and other semi-institutional methods
of treatment have proved far more useful for such offenders.
As a result the concept of open-prisons as a part of after-care device had been accepted at the
International level. This has helped a lot in formulating interest among professional men in

5
the Declaration of Principles of the American Correctional Association (1960)
6
Report of the All India Jail Manual Committee,1919 P. 31
the adoption of new ideas and experiments in the field of prison reforms. And the treatment
of offenders in open conditions similar to outside world as far as possible, found wide
acceptance in several countries. This has proved to be a great contribution to the development
of progressive penology and a professional approach to treatment of offenders at the
International plane.
The subject of these open-institutions was largely discussed in the First United Nation
Congress on Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders held in Geneva in 1955. And
by the time the Second meeting was held in London in 1960, the open-institution had set its
roots in the Anglo-American prison system for the correctional treatment of offenders.

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

In ancient India, Manu emphasized on reformation of the offender rather than punishing him
indiscriminately. He was of the view that unjust and harsh punishments make offenders more
dangerous to society and also bring disrepute to law administrators. Thus he strongly pleaded
that an effective and efficient scheme of after-care be introduced to help bring about the
rehabilitation of even the most dangerous and hardened criminals.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

The development of the open prison system in India can be traced back in the 1830s. With the
appointment of the First All India jail committee in 1836, to review the prison administration
of the country, however the results did not prove successful for long. It was later followed by
the appointment of the Second Jail Committee, and then it was in 1877 that the question of
employing prisoners on the major work sites was put forth in the Prison Conference of the
year. The recommendation was accepted and has since been in practice though with some
changes as thought fit.
During 1920-27, a number of committees were appointed by the provincial governments for
further reviews of prison administration but nothing could actually be done in the direction
until post-independence.
The post independence periods witnessed some significant changes in the policies and
techniques of prison administration. It was realized that the inmates (offenders) shall be given
proper opportunities to associate and communicate freely with the society and the gap
between the outside and the inside world should be cut down as far as possible. The first
commendable effort was made by Sir Walter Reckless, the U.N. Technical Expert who visited
India in 1952.
The appointment of an All India Jail Committee 1956-57 was the result. This committee
worked hard for over three years and made appreciative recommendations for prison reforms.
One of these recommendations was the establishment of open jails and the main emphasis
was on self-discipline and self-help7.

7
Report of the All India Jail Manual Committee,1919 P. 31
 It would not be wrong to say that though the concept of employment of prisoners is an old
concept but the main objectives of such employment have vastly changed in the sense.8
Earlier it was meant to take hard work from prisoners in conditions inhuman and humiliating,
whereas today it is set at providing them with useful and meaningful work under helpful
conditions aiming at restoring their self-respect and self-confidence.

ADVANTAGES OF OPEN PRISON SYSTEM

In the open prison system the selected offenders are placed under open air camps, farm
colonies or other outside work with a reasonable degree of safety. And the obvious
advantages of such system are;
 They help in reducing overcrowding in jails.
 Construction cost is fairly reduced.
 Operational cost is far lesser than that of the enclosed prisons.
 Engaging the inmates of open air prisons in productive work keeps them mentally and
physically fit.
 Open opportunities for self-development and resocialization.
 Help in conservation of natural resources and widens the scope of rehabilitative process.
Based on the twin concepts of parole (most acceptable form of correctional device,
universally recognized as one of the most appropriate methods of reformation and
rehabilitation of offenders) and probation (rehabilitation of offenders in the community) this
theory of open prisons has gained popularity and acceptance as one of the best correctional
techniques of reformation in modern penology.

NATURE OF OPEN PRISONS:

Some aspects describing the nature of open prison institutions in detail, such as;

 It is open to prisoners, as they can go to work at any place as they wish during the day but
have to come back in the evening;
 It is open to security, these is absence of bars, locks, walls and armed guards.
 It is open to organization, working is based on the inmate’s sense of responsibility, self-
discipline and self confidence; and
 It is open to public, people are free to visit the prison and meet the prisoners.9

8
Quoted in Barnes and Teeters, “New Horizons in Criminology”, P.897.
9
http://tiharprisons.nic.in visited on 14/09/2016 at 1819hrs
 NATIONAL SITUATION

In India the first ever open air camp was set up attached to the Model Prison at Lucknow
in 1949. Which was soon followed by the ‘Mauli Ali Agricultural Colony’ for Convicts
in 1954. And so started the phase of change and development as various states followed the
suit by establishing open-prison institutions for the inmates. Some of them are as follows;
 An open-air prison at Yarvada, Maharashtra (1955)
 Open Air Jail at Soundatti, Mysore (1968)
 Open Prison at Amreli, Gujarat (1968)
 Open Prison at Nettvketheri, Kerela (1962)
 Open Air Agricultural Prison at Nabha, Punjab (1970)
 Open Air Prison at Singanallur, Tamil Nadu (1956)
 Prisoner’s Open Air Camp at Agricultural Research Farm at Durgapur,
Rajasthan (1955)Shri Sampurnanand Bandi Shivir at Sanganer, Jaipur (1963)

{The state of Rajasthan has the highest number of open jails i.e. ten operating within the
state}
In these jails there are no restrictions on the prisoners in respect of reading materials and are
allowed to access material for the purpose of self nurturing and development of person. They
are also allowed to pursue studies through open universities, and special lectures are held
within the prisons for the educational development of the inmates.
A report has showed that by 1993-2000 a total of 149 prisoners were enrolled in various
courses through IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) at the cost of the
government. And 59 prisoners were enrolled for courses in higher education such as B.A,
M.A, post graduate diploma in business administration from 2005 to 2007 with a total of Rs.
1,93,055.00 paid towards the fees. Also the Bangalore University has started a programme
supporting this noble cause, they propose to impart formal education to prisoners in distance
mode. In this programme prisoners are free to pursue their studies and enrol in different
graduation and post-graduation programmes.
They are also provided daily newspaper, periodicals, magazines in all the regional languages
so as to link their minds with the outside world and society.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

The open jail institutions proved to be quite useful and showed much positive results in the
first two decades of their establishment in India. But unlike the system functioning in other
nations the system in India started to face sharp declines after a period of time. Perhaps the
reason was that there had been no significant addition to the existing jails after 1980. And the
idea of special jails for women did not get much support either.

Many questions can forward regarding the system its problems, some of them being that, ‘Is
it rightful that in an anxiety for reformation of prisoners, the basic fact that they are notorious
and formidable criminals be neglected?’ or ‘Is it proper that one in order to avoid the
“trouble” and “problems” with offenders merely transfers them, their rights and
responsibilities to a ‘criminal chief’ who commands over his fellow-inmates on the basis of
his power, strength and past status?’, ‘does the negligence of the prison officials not defeat
the very purpose of open prisons?’ Thus the need of review of the functioning of the existing
open prisons was felt.
As a result of which, the Jail Reforms Committee suggested two kinds of open prisons, open
and semi-open jails and the criterion for segregation of prisoners should not be on the basis of
their term of sentence, but overall possibility of prisoner’s propensity to reform and
resocialisation.

CONCLUSION

However despite all the shortcomings and criticisms for the working of open prisons, it is an
accepted fact that this system has become an important part of the present day prison system.
And the service it has provided to the nation over the time is not only significant but
appreciable.
There is no doubt as to the thought that ‘help’ and ‘hate’ should be the guiding principles
underlying the modern prison administration.