Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University

Lucknow,U.P.

SUBJECT : CRIMINOLOGY AND PENOLOGY

TITLE OF PROJECT:
TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS AND CORRECTION OF OFFENDERS
(Final Draft)

Submitted to: Submitted By:

Mr. Malay Pandey Lokesh Nigam
Assist.Prof.(Law) 200102007 ( 1st semester)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Any accomplishment requires effort of many people and this work is no different. I take this
opportunity to thank Mr. Malay Pandey (Assistant Professor, Law) for giving me such a
wonderful topic for research and providing me valuable training and guidance at the various
stages of my project.

I will also remain highly indebted to the librarian for providing the requisite research
material.

Lastly I am thankful to all my colleagues who have given time to help me during the
completion of the project.

-Lokesh Nigam

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Introduction.
2. Reformative theory of Punishment.
3. Rehabilitation as a primary object.
4. Why do we need corrective measures?
5. Correctional Institution in India
6. Open Prisons
7. Pardon
8. Suspension, Remission and Commutation of Sentence
9. Furlough.
10. Probation.
11. Parole
12. Conclusion.
13. Bibliography.

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 INTRODUCTION
Correctional machinery is an integral part of the criminal justice system. If the purpose of
the system is to achieve prevention of crimes the system cannot afford to leave the
correctional and rehabilitation aspect unattended. The term ‘correction’ is more aptly to
refer to the rehabilitation of the offender. It is a generic term which applies to correct,
amend or put right the criminal behavior.
1
Rehabilitation finds theoretical justification on the premise that offender commits crime
because of unfavourable social circumstances. Hence it is an obligation of the society to
intervene and right of the offender to take help from the society. Another justification is
based on the utilitarianism of Bentham. That way should be adopted which produces the
greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. The rehabilitation theory also advances
the concept of restorative justice.2

Jeremy Bentham, in his book, Principles of Legislation, said that a penal system ought not to
be brought cruel because it includes a great variety of the punishment. The multiplicity and
the variety of punishment prove the industry and the cares of the legislature. The more we
study the nature of offences and of motives, the more we examine the diversity of characters
and circumstances, the more we shall feel the necessity of employing different means to
counteract them. Variety in punishments is one of the perfections of a penal code.

A burden shared is a burden lessened is the philosophy behind the rehabilitation of the
offender in the community. Rob White in his writing 3 has discussed the conceptual
foundation of rehabilitation in great detail. He also discussed various correctional and
rehabilitative techniques. He was if the view that rehabilitation is based on two approaches
i.e. justice approach and welfare approach. Punishment in most of the countries derives its
philosophy from either of these two approaches. The third approaches of rehabilitation
inmates somewhere between these two and emphasize on restorative justice.

1
TRAVIS C. PRATT, JACINTA M. GAUET.AL., KEY IDEAS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL
JUSTICE (2011).
2
LINNET DOLINEN-GAHAR, HANDBOOK ON INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTION, (2013).
3
See, Rob white, “Community Corrections and Restorative Justice”, 16 Current Issues in Criminal Justice

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REFORMATIVE THEORY OF PUNISHMENT

With the passage of time, development in the field of criminal science brought a radical
change in criminological thinking. There stood a new appearance to the problem of crime
and criminals. Individualized treatment becomes the cardinal principle for the reformation
of offenders. This view found expression in the reformative theory of punishment.
While abreast deterrent, retributive plus preventive justice, the reformative method to
punishment attempts to bring about a shift in the nature of the offender so as to reform him
as a law-abiding part of society. Punishment is used as a measure to reclaim the offender
and not to torture of harasses him. Reformative theory condemns all kinds of corporal
punishments. The major emphasis of the reformist movement in the rehabilitation of
inmates in penal-correctional institutions so that they are transformed into law-abiding
citizens. Those correctional institutions beget either maximum or least protection methods.
The reformists advocate humane treatment of inmates inside the prison institutions. They
also suggest that prisoners should be properly trained to adjust themselves to free life in
society after their release from the institutions. The agencies such as parole and probation
are recommended as the best measures to reclaim offenders to society as a reformed person.

The reformative view of penology suggests that punishment is only justifiable if it looks to
the future and not to the past. “It should not be regarded as settling an old account but rather
as opening a new one”. Therefore, the followers of this view support prisonisation not only
for the purpose of separating criminals and deporting them from society but to begin about a
shift in their rational vision by adequate means of reformation during the course of their
sentence.

REHABILITATION AS PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

The integrated goal of corrections today is to protect society by controlling offenders and
preventing crimes. Restraining the offender in custody for some time protects society from
crimes which he might otherwise commit. To be positive and truly “correctional”,
corrections must aim rehabilitation and reintegration of the offenders to enable them to
return to the society as productive, law-abiding citizens and consequently re-establishing the
community’s acceptance and faith. Therefore, rehabilitation is the primary objective in any
correctional institutions but it has necessarily to be accompanied by social acceptance of the

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offender.4

WHY DO WE NEED CORRECTIVE MEASURES?

A person is not a born criminal. It is due to his association with bad company that often leads
him into trouble. A person is always capable of reforming provided he sees his release in the
society as a reward for it. If no such temptation is provided to accused persons, he will never
try to reform himself and always languish in jails. This often leads to overcrowding of prisons
and serious health issues arise in the prisons. It is to be noted that the corrective methods are
required for the accused persons and not for under-trials. A mechanism has to be prepared for
separating under trials from convicts. Due to various corrective measures a convict can be
reformed and be released in the society because it is always better to reform a convict than to
punish a person who is already repenting for his wrongdoing. It is ultimately the fight against
crime and not criminals.

CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION 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 integration. For these purposes, the correctional
process offered alternatives as probation, parole, institutionalization, etc.

Under the modern correctional philosophy, the function of the penal institutions is to find
the ways to reshape the interests, attitudes, habits and the total characters of prisoners or the
offender’s so as to reintegrate them in the society after they are released from the prison.

It was aptly pointed out by Justice Fazal Ali “The modern concept of punishment and
penology has undergone a vital transformation and the criminal is not now looked like a
grave menace to the society which should be got rid of but is a diseased person suffering
from mental malady or psychological frustration due to sub-conscious reactions and is,
therefore, to be cured and corrected rather than to be destroyed..”.

4
N.K. CHAKRABARTI, ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: PERCEPTION AND PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 1(1999).

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OPEN PRISONS

Some prisoners need to be carefully handled so as to bring them back to the mainstream as
they are occasional prisoners or criminals who would definitely wish to improve. The
provision of open prisons is a method in which his plight is understood and a chance is
provided to the prisoners to be able to come back to the mainstream. The open prisons have
been present in some of the other forms in India for a long time. In India, there are 63 open
prisons. These are prisons that have no wall, i.e. no strict restrictions yet they are punished
and mad to repent for their wrongdoings and the realization with the sense of freedom is the
best form of repention. This is the best way of reform.5

The prisoners who are sentenced with life imprisonment and only those who have good
conduct and show signs of improvement and desire to be reformed and rehabilitation are
selected for being sent to these prisons and are shifted to these prisons. While some states of
India, different actions for open prisons have been exercised. The objective behind these
open prisons is that ‘they are jails yet not jails’. The person is under custody but has a free
mind and body. This helps to bring back the dignity of the individual and give a sense of
self-confidence, self- respect, self-reliance and sense of responsibility in the individual so as
to eliminate crime.6 Therefore, there is an elimination of crime and not the criminal. The
several States in India have such open prisons. The positive effects of open prisons are:
1. It minimizes the ill effect of crime on the offender and the society at large.
2. It reduces the overcrowding in prisons and maintains the humane conditions of life in
the prisons.
3. It is cost effective and more reasonable than holding the prisoners in the state jails.

4. This helps to restore the dignity of the individual and give a sense of self-
confidence, self-respect, self-reliance and sense of responsibility. It helps to create
social awareness and moral upliftment of the individual so as to eliminate crime.

This concept needs more development and publicity. With the modern penal view of reform
and rehabilitation, such prisons are ideal for achieving the goal. These open prisons should
encourage apart from agriculture work, industrial, manufacturing, IT, etc. Women open
prisons should also be supported. The prisoners in the open prisons can be an active part of

5
K.D. GAUR, CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY, (2002).
6
See, B.R. Sharma and Vandan Kashyap, Prison System in India: a Historical Retrospection, CMLJ, 136, Vol. 30,
April-June, (1994).

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the new policy of Sh. Narendra Modi of ‘Make in India’.

Appreciating the concept of open prisons in India the Supreme court in the case of
Ramamurthy v. State of Karnataka7 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

PARDON
Since offences are committed against the state, the Indian law does not permit the victim to
grant pardons. The power to grant a pardon or executive clemency is vested to the Head of
the State i.e. the President of India or Governor of the State. In addition to this, State
Governments can also commute the sentence for all categories of prisoners in
commemoration of certain special events, i.e. the shortening the period of imprisonment of
convicted prisoners, thereby reducing the prison population. The pardoning power can be
exercised before, during or after trial.8

SUSPENSION, REMISSION AND COMMUTATION OF SENTENCES

SUSPENSION OR REMISSION OF SENTENCES

Apart from the power vested in the President and the Governor by the constitution of India
to suspend, remit or commute any sentence, section 432 of CrPC empowers the appropriate
government to suspend, remit sentence, High court cannot exercise this power9 as follows:

1. After a person has been sentenced to punishment the Appropriate Government on the
application may at that time with or without condition suspend the execution of a
sentence or remit the whole or part of the punishment.
2. The Appropriate Government on receiving such application shall require the court to

7
(1997) 2 SCC 642 (659) para 50
8
K.M. Nanavati v. Sate of Bombay, AIR 1961 SC 112.
9
K. Pandurangan Vs SSR Veluswamy (2003) 11 ILD 306 (SC).

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 state its opinion with reasons as to whether the application should be granted or not.
3. The Appropriate Government may either grant or cancel such suspension or remission.
4. Certain conditions may be laid down by the Appropriate Government before giving such
considerations.

COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE

This means some other punishment in place of the one given by the court of law. This
usually for lessening the severity of the punishment. The Appropriate Government may with
or without the consent of the person sentence commute10,
a. A sentence of death for any other punishment provided by IPC.
b. A sentence of Life imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or for fine

c. A sentence of rigorous imprisonment for simple imprisonment for any term to which
that person might have been sentenced o for fine.
d. A sentence of simple imprisonment for fine.

FURLOUGH
The dictionary meaning of furlough is “leave of absence from prison granted to a prisoner”.
It is a temporary release mechanism in which the prisoner is released temporarily and severe
their sentence outside the prison for a given period of time and them return back to sever the
remaining sentence. These include work release and furlough or leave. In India, furlough is
granted as leave to a prisoner to visit his family for a short period which counts towards his
sentence, after he undergoes a certain period of sentence. The difference between parole and
furlough is that parole is a suspension of the sentence while furlough is treated as part of the
sentence. Several states grant furlough for good conduct to prisoners not implicated in
heinous offences.19

It must be noted that parole is different from a “furlough”. While parole is awarded to a
prisoner confined for any offence irrespective of the term of imprisonment, a furlough is
only allowed to prisoners standing long sentences, five years or more.

PROBATION

10
State ( Govt. of NCT Delhi) Vs Prem Raj (2003) 9 ILD 359 (SC).

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In criminal justice system ‘probation’ means the conditional suspension of imposition of a
sentence by the court, in selected cases, especially of young offenders, who are not sent to
prison but are released on probation, on agreeing to abide by certain conditions. Word
‘probation’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Probera’ which means ‘to test’ or ‘to prove’.
Homer S. Cunings has observed that probation is a matter of discipline and treatment. If the
probationers are carefully chosen and supervision work is performed with intelligence and
understanding one can work miracles in the rehabilitation of the offenders.11

Probation is a form of the criminal sanction imposed by a court upon an offender, nearly
always after a verdict or a plea of guilty but without the prior imposition of a term of
imprisonment. Probation may be linked to a jail term, knows as a split sentence, whereby
the judge sentences the offender to a specified jail term to be followed by a specified period
on the release of probation.12
The provision of Probation of Offenders Act, which brings about reform of the offenders and
for their disciplined conduct and rehabilitation and normal life in society.13

When any person has committed any offence whose punishment is not more than two years
and the court is of view that the nature and character of the offence are of such a nature that
it is reasonable to release him on probation of good conduct.14

When any person has committed any offence whose punishment is neither death nor life
imprisonment and the court is of the opinion that the nature and character of the offence is
of such nature that it is reasonable to release him on probation of good conduct than, any
other law the court may direct him to be released on probation after executing the bond and
with certain conditions to be fulfilled when asked upon.15

PAROLE

11
See, Harudaya Ballav Das, A Study on the Prospect of Reformative Criminal Justice with Special Reference to
Probation of Offenders Act and Law Relating to Victimology, Cr.L.J., June, 1991, p. 66.
SANFORD H. KADISH, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CRIME AND JUSTICE, 1240 (1983).
12

13
N.K. CHAKRABARTI, ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: PERCEPTION AND PERSPECTIVE Vol. 1(1999).
14
The Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, Sec. 3.
15
K.D. GAUR, CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY 52 (2002).

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Parole is known as premature release of offenders after strict scrutiny of long- term
prisoners, under the rules laid down by various governments. Premature releases from
prison is conditional subject to his behaviour in society and accepting to live under the
guidance and supervision of Parole Officer. The word ‘parole’ means “a term to designate
conditional release granted in a penal institution.” So in the parole, part of the sentence is
served and it is then that convict is released on parole on condition of good behaviour and if
he is found to have improved and abstained from criminal conduct he gets remission of the
rest of the sentence and for sometime at least a part of the sentence.

In India, prison life did not emerge out of the social movements but they were the outcomes
of the worst conditions of treatment in prisons which our political suffers faced during the
prison life. They repeatedly launched protests with the prison authorities and made all
possible efforts to see that the rigours of prison life are mitigated and the prisoners are
humanely treated. In the meantime, the reformatory movement which was gaining strength
in the field of penology all over the world also gave impetus to the cause of corrective
methods of treatment of the offenders rather than keeping them confined into the small
prison cells.

The system of parole serves to meet the ends of justice in two ways. Firstly, it serves as
effective punishments by itself in as much as a parolee is deterred from reporting crimes due
to the threat of his return to prison or a similar institution if they violated parole conditions.
Secondly, it serves as efficient measures of safety and treatment reaction to crime by
affording a series of safety and treatment reaction to crime by affording a series of
opportunities for the parolee to prepare himself for the normal life in society.

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 CONCLUSION

The popular quote which was delivered by the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi
essentially “Hate the crime, not the criminal” should be the approach held in mind in
rehabilitating prisoners. The contemporary criminal punishment must seek to correct
criminals and transform their behaviour rather than merely to penalize wrongdoers. With the
passage of time, developments in the field of criminal science brought about a radical
change in the criminological thinking. Now the individual treatment becomes a cardinal
principle for the reformation of the offenders and this new vision found its expression in the
reformative theory of punishment. As against deterrent, retributive and preventive theories
the reformativists seek to bring about a change in the attitude of the offender so as to
rehabilitate him as a law-abiding member of society.

Practically in India, the correctional setting works under a combination of four major sub-
systems and these are police, prosecution, judiciary and the correctional services. Each sub-
system is expected not only to play its own statutory role to contribute towards the
achievement of the main objective of the Criminal Justice System as a whole but also to
strengthen each other’s role in a strenuous manner. But the ground reality shows that each of
this system usually tends to function like a system of its own and many a time works at
cross purposes with the other segment of the Criminal Justice System. India’s Criminal
Justice System has not been able to deliver on what is anticipated of it and is, in fact, under
mammoth sprain because of the problems in all the components law enforcement,
adjudication and correction and therefore the need for the reforms is the question of the
hour.

The Hon’ble Judiciary has recognized so many rights of prisoners like the right to life and
personal liberty16 are the most important to any human being and while interpreting this
right it has been said that “life means more than mere animal existence.” There are another
bunch of rights also which has been recognized while interpreting fundamental rights,
namely, right to live with dignity 17 falls in the ambit of right to life; right to health and
medical treatment is also part of the right to life, etc. all these rights are needed to be

16
Kharak Singh v. State of UP, AIR 1963 SC 1295.
17
DBM Patnak v. State of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1974 SC 2092; Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, AIR
1978 SC 597; Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, AIR 1978 Sc 1675.

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properly implemented in correctional institutions so that it may help in the rehabilitation of
the offender.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
1. K.D. GAUR, CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY, DEEP AND DEEP
PUBLICATIONS, (2002).
2. SUNIL KANT BHATTACHARYA, PROBATION SYATEM IN INDIA: AN
APPRAISAL, MANAS PUBLICATION, (2008).
3. N.K. CHAKRABARTI, PROBATION SYSTEM IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF
CRIMINAL JUSTICE, NEW DELHI, (1999).
4. M.J. SETHNA, SOCIETY AND THE CRIMINAL, (5TH ED. 1989).

STATUTES
1. The Constitution of India, 1950.
2. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1986.
3. Indian Penal Code, 1860.
4. The Prison Rules 1999.
5. The Prisons Act, 1894.
6. The Probation of Offenders Act, 1958.

REPORT

1. All India Jail Manual Committee Report (1957), Para 135.

2. All Indian Jail Reforms Committee’s Report (1919-1920).

JOURNAL ARTICLES
1. B.R. Sharma and Vandan Kashyap, Prison System in India: a Historical
Retrospection, 30 CMLJ, 136, (1994).
2. Harudaya Ballav Das, A Study on the Prospect of Reformative Criminal Justice
with Special Reference to Probation of Offenders Act and Law Relating to
Victimology, Cr.L.J.,66, (1991).
3. H.D. Mondal, Crime Victims and Their Treatment in the Administration of
Criminal Justice, 32 Central Indian Law Quarterly, (2001).
4. H.R. Khanna, Some Reflections on Criminal Justice, 17 JILI, 508, (1975).

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