Prison System and Correctional Programmes

“Crime is the outcome of the diseased min and jail must have an environment of hospital
for treatment and care”
Mahatma Gandhi

No society can be a crime free society therefore; the institution of prison is indispensable
one. In ancient and medieval times prisoners were treated as deprecated being, kept in
solitary confinement and subjected to penal servitude. So, in the very beginning prisons
were to deter the offender as the life in prison is isolated which acts as deterrent factor. It
also fulfills the preventive purpose of punishment. In this modern era of human rights,
prison is not used for inhuman purpose of effecting torture. Modern prison reforms have
come up to view that prisoners are also human beings. Sentence can be held Justiciable only
when it would serve its ultimate purpose that is to reform the prisoner and to remove the
criminal element from his personality which would in turn protect society against crime.
Prisons should be such effective institutions that completely transform a criminal into a law
abiding citizen who is capable enough to sustain himself after his release and start a new
respectful life. However, in recent there has been a debate across various foras on the
dilapidated condition of the prison in India.

Prisons in India

Prisons, and their administration, is a state subject covered by item 4 under the State List in
the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. The management and administration of
prisons falls exclusively in the domain of the State governments, and is governed by the
Prisons Act, 1894 and the Prison manuals of the respective state governments.

According to Model Prison Manual, 2003

It is mentioned in this manual that the Supreme Court of India has laid down three broad
Principles
a) A person in prison does not become a non-person.
b) A person in prison is entitled to all human rights within the limitations of
imprisonment.
c) There is no justification in aggravating the suffering which is already inherent in the
process of incarceration

Prison establishments in India exist at three levels—

 the taluka level,
 district level, and
  central (sometimes called zonal/range) level.

The jails in these levels are called Sub Jails, District Jails, and Central Jails respectively. In
general, the infrastructure, security, and prisoner facilities such as medical, educational and
rehabilitation are progressively better from Sub jail to Central Jail. 

Central jail
The criteria for a jail to be categorised 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 two years) are confined in the Central Jails,
which have larger capacity in comparison to other jails. These jails also have rehabilitation
facilities.

District jail
District jails serve as the main prisons in states and union territories where there are no
Central Jails

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

Open jail
Open jails are minimum security prisons. Only convicted prisoners with good behavior
satisfying certain norms prescribed in the prison rules are admitted in open jails. Minimum
security is kept in such prisons and prisoners are engaged in agricultural activities

Special jail
Special jails are maximum security prisons for the confinement of a particular class or
particular classes of prisoners. Prisoners housed in special jails are generally been convicted
of offences such as terrorism, violent crimes, habitual offenders, serious violations of prison
discipline, and inmates showing tendencies towards violence and aggression.

Women’s jail
Women's jails are prisons that exclusively house female prisoners. Women's jails may exist
at the sub-divisional, district and central (zone/range) level. There were 20 Women's Jails
across India

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.
Correctional Services - in India

Correction remained a word almost unknown to most law abiding citizens, and there was
also a tendency to think that imprisonment was the total correctional process. As such,
corrections carried the immediate task of maintaining custody of the offenders and the long
range goal of treatment, rehabilitation, and reintegration. For these purposes, the
correctional process offered three alternatives probation, institutionalisation and parole.
Each of these three facets of corrections involved a system of organisational and complex of
administrative agencies, personnel, physical facilities, operational techniques as well as
decision-making. ln addition, either to fulfill specific ends or an alternative to
institutionalization there -were various programmes dealing with individual needs of the
offender

Under the modern correctional philosophy, it was believed that function of the penal
institutions was to find out the means, so as to reshape the interests, attitudes, habits and
the total character of prisoner in order to reintegrate them in the society on their release
from the penal institutions.

The main purpose of imprisonment are those of

a) disabling the offender from being danger to society, by locking him up
b) preventing prospective offenders by the threat of long term lock-up and
c) reforming the offenders under healthy and transforming conditions.

It has been realized that imprisonment, in order to be an effective reformation method of

dealing with offenders, must be long term imprisonment, or imprisonment for at least a
sufficient time, so as to give the prison officials sufficient opportunities of successfully
dealing with the offender for his re-education and rehabilitation. Short term sentences are
considered worse as they do not have any correctional value. Moreover, short term
sentence may lead to congestion in prison and thus expose the offender to the danger of
contamination in prison by letting him come into contact with hard and rough offenders.

Various corrective measures in India

Various corrective measures we have in India are open prisons, concept of parole,
probation, prison labour etc. Education in prisons are also provided for example-
 Fundamental academic education designed to provide the intellectual tools needed
in study and training, and in everyday life.
 Vocational education, designed to give training for an occupation.
 Health education
 Cultural education
  Social education.

Service of educated inmates also provided a helpful hand to the prison authorities as well as
to the society. After being released , they actively participate in the economic progress of
the society. They prove to be useful subjects of the society.
Open prisons play an important role in the reformation of prisoners. Besides being less
costly open prisons provide an advantage to the Government to utilize the capabilities of
the inmates to a great extent. The monetary returns are positive and once put into
operation, the open jails acquire financial self-sufficiency. Open prisons are also helpful in
reducing the overcrowding of the prisons which is urgently required in the case of Indian
prisons. Appreciating the concept of open prisons in India the Supreme court in the case
of Ramamurthy v. State of Karnataka[1]held that-

though open-air prisons, create their own problems which are basically of management, we
are sure that these problems are not such which cannot be sorted out. For the greater good
of the society, which consists in seeing that the inmates of a jail come out, not as a
hardened criminal but as a reformed person, no managerial problem is insurmountable. So
let more and more open air prisons be opened. To start with, this may be done at all the
District Headquarters of the country

There are some states in India those have excelled in the concept of open prisons. Rajasthan
is one of them. First state to adopt the concept of open prisons was Uttar Pradesh but now
the state lags behind in implementing the concept. There are certain lapses in the concept
of open prisons. As we all know that the reformative reforms are for convicts, the under trial
population in our jails, being almost of the prison population is left out of these reforms.

Those who are not eligible for open prisons are-

1. Dacoits
2. Rapists
3. Thieves

Parole is a temporary release allowing the convict to spend some in the community. This in
turn helps him to adjust to the normal social life outside the prison and it therefore, signifies
the transitory phase from imprisonment to normal freedom. Parole is granted only on
special grounds and allows the prisoner to live at liberty subject to the conditions which may
be imposed by the parole order. Violation of parole order may result in the cancellation of
the order and the convict is sent back to the prison. Duration of parole spent by the convict
is not counted in the duration of imprisonment. Parole is not a right and has to be earned by
the convict. Parole is granted to those who are sentenced for imprisonment for more than
18 months.