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Open Prison

Penology & Victimology (Karnataka State Law University)

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OPEN PRISONS

According to the UN Congress on prevention of crime and treatment of offenders,

open prison maybe defined as "an open institution is characterized by the absence of
material and physical precautions against escape such as walls, locks, bars and
armed guards, etc and by a system based on self-discipline and innate sense of
responsibility towards the group in which he lives".

Dr. C P Tandon characterized open prisons as:

1. Degree of freedom from physical precautions such as was locks, bars and
special guards
2. The extent to which the regime is based on self-discipline and the inmates
responsibility towards the group

Open air prisons play an important role in the scheme of reformation of prisoners
which has been recognised as one of the essential objectives of prison management.
The objective of an open prison is to aim at the development of self-respect and sense
of responsibility as well as useful preparation for freedom. Discipline is easier to
maintain and punishment is seldom required. The tensions of a normal prison life
are relaxed and conditions of imprisonment can approximate more closely to the
pattern of normal life.

Origin of open prisons:

In the late 19th century, semi open prison institution called the Witzwill
establishment it was set up in Switzerland. Open prisons in modern sense were,
however, established in UK in 1930s and in the United States around 1940s.

Aims and objective of open prison:

i. For the rehabilitation and pre-release preparation the all India jail committee
had suggested the system of open campus. It aids in training of inmates in
freedom.
ii. Treatment of criminals in open prison emphasizes on ensuring offenders
continue as a part of the society and not be excluded from it.
iii. Another aim is to reduce overcrowding in jails.

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iv. Once the long term offender has got maximum benefit out of institutional
programs, his hopes and interest during the remaining part of his
imprisonment can be kept alive by transferring the inmate to an open prison.
v. The open prison or wall less prison aims at correction of the offenders in a
humane way so that the offenders never dignified and peaceful life after the
release.

Main characteristics of open prison:

i. It enables informal and institutional living in small groups with minimum
measure of custody.
ii. It efforts to promote consciousness among inmates about their social
responsibilities.
iii. It offers adequate facilities for training in males in agriculture and other
related occupations
iv. It provides greater opportunities for inmates to meet the relatives and friends
v. It allows liberal remissions to the extent of 15 days in a month
vi. It makes it possible to pay proper tension towards the health and recreation
facilities for inmates
vii. The open jail Institutions are managed by specially qualified and well trained
personnel
viii. Ensures payment of wages in part to the inmate and sending a part of it to his
family
ix. Provision for financial assistance to inmates through liberal bank loans
x. There is free and intimate contact between staff and the inmates and among
the inmates themselves.
xi. It considers regular and paid work for inmates under expert supervision as the
best method of reformation of offenders
xii. The avoidance of unduly long institutional detention of prisoners is the basic
policy underlying the open jails.

Advantages of open prisons

The utilisation of open prisons during post-independence era has been most
spectacular, and elicited much interest among penologists because of the realisation
that a substantial proportion of prison inmates do not need retention in guarded
prison enclosures. Instead, those who are carefully selected can be placed in open air

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camps, farm colonies or other outside work with a reasonable degree of safety. The
obvious advantages of the open prisons as compared with the conventional prisons
may be briefly stated as follows :

1. They help in reducing overcrowding in jails.

2. The construction cost is fairly reduced.
3. The operational cost of open prisons is far less than the enclosed prisons.
4. Engaging inmates of open air prisons in productive work reduces idleness and
keeps them physically and mentally fit.
5. Open prisons offer opportunities for self-improvement and resocialisation to
the inmates.
6. The removal of prisoners from general prison to an open prison helps
conservation of natural resources and widens the scope of in rehabilitative
process.

The scheme of open jails for prisoners is essentially based on the twin system
probation and parole which have gained popularity as correctional techniques of
reformation in modern penology.

Open prisons in USA and UK

During the 19th Century open a present for an existence in America in the name of
prison farms. The convicts were nearing the end of the sentence would generally
transferred from conventional presents to these open farms in forest as labourers.
But these camps differ from modern open Institutions at least in one aspect, i.e., they
were not on a camp but were literally slave camps for prisoners who were made to
work under heavy guard and surveillance. Although the system involved risk of
prisoners escaping, the number of actual escapes were negligible. Open prison
functions in UK also where the Prisoners live in the natural way and work like other
subjects to the rule of supervision. The Prisoners can attend the sick friends and
relatives.

Origin and Development in India

The development of open prison institutions in India can be traced back from the
middle of the nineteenth century when the first All India Jail Committee was
appointed in 1836 to review the prison administration of this country. The

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Committee, in its report did not favour employment of prisoners on major public
works and therefore, the system fell into disuse during the next twenty years. The
Second Jail Committee was appointed in 1864 to review the Jail administration. It
was in 1877 that the question of employing prisoners on major work sites such as
digging of canals or dams etc. was reopened in the Prison Conference of that year.
The Conference strongly recommended that employment of prisoners as labourers
on large public works was not only valuable but also a necessary adjunct to jail
administration. This recommendation was subsequently accepted and followed in
practice.

The Committee expressed a view that the open air life and employment in the form of
labour were not averse to reformatory influences. Construction of jail buildings was
considered as a suitable form of such work for prisoners. Though this Committee
thought that the employment of prisoners on agricultural farms was the most natural
and appropriate form of labour especially for prisoners who were largely drawn from
the agriculturist background, but such employment involved distribution of labour
over a very wide area which made guarding and supervision difficult. Therefore, the
idea was dropped.

The first scientific effort to modernise prison in India was made by Sir Walter
Reckless, the U.N. Technical Expert who visited India in 1952 when he submitted an
excellent report on prison administration in India. As a result of this, All India Jail
Committee was appointed in 1956-57 which worked for three years and made useful
recommendations for prison reforms. One of the recommendations of the Jail
Committee was to set up open jails for the rehabilitation of prisoners. The emphasis
under this system was on self-discipline and self-help. These open jails were
characterised by the absence of material and physical precautions against escapes so
they live.) as to inculcate a sense of responsibility among inmates towards the group
in which they live.

The state of UP was the first to set up an open air camp attached the model prison at
Lucknow in 1949. At present there are 44 open prisons operating throughout the
country.

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The utility of open jails in India has been commended by the SC in Dharambir v.
State of UP, wherein the court observed that the open present had certain
advantages in the context of young offenders who could be protected from some of
the well-known vices to which young inmates are subjected to in conventional jails.
The SC, thus, directed the state government to send two young accused who were in
their early twenties to the open prison.

As regards to the utility of open prison, the SC in Ramamurthy v. State of

Karnataka, has observed that open air prisons play an important role in the
scheme of reformation of a prisoner which has to be one of the desideratum of prison
management.

Some of the best examples of open prison in India

 Sampurnanand Camp, Chakiya
 Sampurnanand Camp, Naugarh
 Sampurnanand agricultural cum industrial camp, Sitarganj - Nainital
 Saraya Ghat Camp
 Open Prison, Hoshangabad

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