Prison Diaries- 4 Welfare

Prison Diaries- 4

Welfare

“The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
 The deeper the grief, the closer the God!”
 -Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Law says that certain acts committed by people are criminal in nature. Whatever be the reasons for committing crimes, they have punishments. 31 years of experience in police department has made me a firm believer of natural justice. For crimes or misdeeds committed by us, we will get punishment irrespective of our cleverness to hide evidences and escape the police, law or justice. There are umpteen instances I witnessed where nature steps in to mete out penalty in one way or the other to criminals if police, law or justice becomes helpless to punish him. In certain ways, it is better to experience punishment within the system of justice and spend some time inside jails that face nature’s fury. Jail term will be a great cleaning experience, something which kills the ego, time for introspection, repentance and correction. They get plenty of time to read, learn new skills, interact with like minded people and imbibe humility. Besides, they are taken care of by the government and provided with with timely food, medicines, entertainment, rest, wages for work done and various other welfare activities.

Kerala is the only prison department where welfare of prisoners is given a lot of importance. Welfare officers are posted in all the major jails to help inmates cope up with the stress of confinement. There is a chief welfare officer, three regional welfare officers and welfare officers who gives counseling, psychological care, mentoring, skilling, arranges various functions and entertainments within prisons. They also assist in giving legal aid to prisoners. Further they look after rehabilitation of released prisoners and provide assistance to raise loans and grants for ex convicts for setting up entrepreneurship. There are also probation officers under the social justice department who visit the prisons regularly to chart out various welfare activities for the inmates.

Every year the government gives approximately Rs 1 crore for giving vocational training to the inmates. In addition, another Rs 1 crore is given for organizing welfare days in each prison. Jail welfare days are days where the various talents of inmates can be highlighted. They can take part in sports and games, exhibit their various artistic talents and organize musical nights. In the central prisons, sometimes the welfare activities stretch to a week. Prizes are given to winners, famous personalities visit jails to interact with inmates on those days and generally, prisoners enjoy a lot forgetting fetters at least during the duration of celebration. In some prisons, the family of officers also take part in the various programs, adding colour to the events.

Another welfare measure is allowing the relatives and friends of inmates to visit them. The prisoners can make phone calls to their houses every week and talk to their relatives and advocates. They can also meet them every month. Paroles, leaves and furloughs are other welfare measures which we give to deserving inmates. All inmates who completed a fixed initial tenure are eligible to apply for home leave for 30 days. After the initial leave, they can apply every six months to go on parole. In addition, they are eligible for emergency leaves also. This gives them an opportunity to get back to the society and lead normal lives with their near and dear ones.

Within the prisons, inmates are divided into ‘gangs’ depending on the work they do. Those who do similar work are often housed together too for the sake of convenience. The best among them are selected to function as leaders in each block and also at places of work. Attached to the central and open prisons there are units for carpentry, weaving, printing, handicrafts, shoe making, dress making, toy/jewellery making, cooking and other small skills units. The general name given to the buildings which have these units is “Manufactory.” There are instructors and trainers posted especially to impart training and supervise various works.

A system called ‘remission’ is also available to convicts by which inmates become eligible to get reduction in the total sentence period because of the good work they do inside prisons. As an incentive to being a disciplined, obedient and hardworking person, they get up to 32 days a year as remission.  In addition for exemplary behavior they get extra 15 days remission per year. The Superintendent of Prisons can further give a convict special remission for 30 days a year for extraordinary services offered by an inmate within prisons such as teaching skills to others, saving life of a co-prisoner or an officer, excellent output in work, helping prison officers to carry out emergency duties etc. DG Prisons can give up to 60 days special remission to a convict for exemplary conduct. For release of life term prisoners, advisory boards are constituted to meet every quarter and submit recommendations to the government considering the character and conduct of eligible convicts who completed a minimum term of 14 years of sentence within prisons.

Open prisons are places where the convicts are not locked up inside cells even in the night time. Instead, they are housed in dormitories and there will be guards only on the periphery to prevent escapes. In the two open prisons for men and one open prison for women, only those convicts of proven good character and who had spent a minimum of three years in the central prison are sent. Once in open prison, they get more frequent paroles, more wages for their work and more freedom to move around within the premises. The facilities in open prisons, especially the canteen, kitchen and skilling are better too.

Despite the care we, prison officers take, to see that there is no recidivism I have noticed one particular lady prisoner coming back again and again to the same prison. She gets arrested within a week of her formal release for the same offense of selling cannabis. We have given her training in various skills and also gave her grant and loan to start her own stitching centre, but she spends that money to procure cannabis. After a lot of coaxing she said to me,

“I don’t want to be out. The society outside is horrible. There are traps all around. Men hurt and harm me. My family has disowned me. The stigma is too much to bear outside. Here, I feel safe. I get security and good sleep. So I intentionally commit crimes in the open and tip off police myself to get arrested. I never defend myself in courts too. I like to be in this prison, madam.”

I was shocked at her response. But then she was speaking the truth. Within the prison, she has friends which she cannot find in the society. I always feel that there should be homes for rehabilitating released woman prisoners where they would feel safe and secure. Those who do not have any family or who fear the predators from harming them should be able to sleep peacefully in those homes till they are confident enough to go out into the society and start living by themselves. Sadly, it is said, once a prisoner, always a prisoner!

PRISON DIARIES (3) - Education and Skilling

PRISON DIARIES (3)

Education and Skilling

              It is commonly said that a man commits violence for two things- money and women. I am not too sure about the women part though I have seen crimes happening apparently over issues connected with women, but money or lack of it is one predominant cause for crimes happening all over the world. People do crimes on the spur of the moment too, on sudden provocation or under the influence of prohibited substances. But if he is sufficiently educated, he will not be provoked enough to commit violent crimes even under the influence of drugs and alcohol. That is why education and skilling are given a lot of importance in prison administration.

              Whatever be the reason they have committed the crime, correctional education is given in prisons with the sole purpose of reforming him, making him mend his ways so that he understands the gravity of the offense committed, accepts his mistakes and repent it. Previously prison officers used to decide what sort of training each prisoner gets and his interests were never taken into consideration. What will happen if an inmate who has an aptitude for animal rearing gets intensive training in carpentry and is made to work in that unit in prison? He is very unlikely to enjoy or even learn carpentry well and each second of his work there will make him angry at the lopsided system. 

 

So we started calling for willingness of inmates in the various skill modules. We also asked if they would like to learn a new skill which is not there in our programme. Selection of prisoners for each course was taken after taking into consideration their interests also. If a person wants to work in the “Food for Freedom” (FFF) unit, which is the prison’s in-house food making unit then we choose him for that. Many inmates have expressed their desire to learn cooking and work in chappathy (Indian flat bread) units and bakeries. Later I learned that the aroma of bread baking stimulates release of endorphins (a hormone) which makes them feel good! New skills were introduced also with intention to market the end products so that prison department could also generate some income for the government.

A new skill introduced was beautician course. To those who expressed interest to imbibe the skills of a beautician or masseur were imparted training on that. Now we have beauty parlours in the compound of three prisons with expert barbers and beauticians taking care of the grooming needs of the public. We have named these beauty parlours “Phoenix”.  The Phoenix outlet in Kannur Central Prison alone fetches revenue of Rs 7 lakhs a month. I was amazed to see convicts who were sentenced for murder and dacoity wielding dangerous tools such as knife, scissors and razors to serve the public who sit trustingly before them with eyes closed to get a haircut or shave. Soon there will be a Phoenix parlour for women too; we have already given training to over 15 women inmates on these fine skills. To some inmates who expressed a desire to learn fashion designing and tailoring, we gave training in that. Handloom is a traditional skill established within prisons since its inception. We make cotton and linen cloth in bulk. It is with this cloth that the white uniform for inmates is made. We also make indigenously the bed sheets and pillow covers, floor mats, blankets and durries for internal consumption. After skilling the inmates in fashion technology, we created different types of cloth in our mills and are now making latest fashion shirts and kurtas, ladies dress and night dress, good quality bed linen and floor mats for selling them through our outlet in the capital city which my able predecessor named as “Free Fashionista.”(FF) See how each unit has the words ‘free’ or ‘freedom’ associated with it? These skills are the tools which will give freedom in its purest sense to the prisoners. Freedom of choice, freedom to learn a new trade, freedom to work in a career they will be interested in after their jail term and working in these units are the keys towards getting freedom earlier than expected.

Oh, how that is possible, you may ask. Let me explain.

Convicts in jail are eligible to get remission in sentence if their conduct is good and if they work well in their chosen trade within prisons. As per the Prison Act & Rules, the Superintendant of prisons can give two days per every month as remission and extra two days every quarter for exemplary work. For some inmates who have put in services which are above the normal work, remission up to 60 days per year can be given. Remission does not mean sudden ending of the sentence, but reduction in the total term of sentence of a prisoner. 

We now give special training on over 20 different skills including electrical wiring, plumbing, carpentry, computer hardware, metallurgy, shoe making, screen printing, book binding, animal husbandry, organic farming, aqua farming, soap/lotion making, candle making, handicrafts, driving, music and musical instruments, construction work and the like. There is a unit of the Central Polytechnic at the Central Prisons for continued skilling. Those who pass tests are issued certificates with photographs which alone is sufficient for them to get good employment once they get released. This certificate does not mention where this training was given or whether the trained were in prison or not. In the past 20 months, over 120 people, after release from the jails, have obtained employment which fetch them daily wage of around 900 rupees a day. Several people have started their own entrepreneurships too.  Around 40 women convicts were given training on driving two, three and four wheelers and 24 were given driving licences after tests conducted within jail premises. Of those who got their licenses, two women are driving ‘she taxis’ after their release and one lady started her own driving school. Two ladies now drive autorikshaws which they purchased with loans raised with the help of prison officers.

Apart from skilling, formal education is another important factor that we take care to give the convicts. Now, there is a wing of the Kerala University functioning within the Central Prison in Trivandrum to cater to the educational requirements of inmates. We allow the prisoners to pursue various courses and write public examinations. Those who have not completed school due to financial or other difficulties are taught lessons and exams conducted within prisons. Adult educations, teaching of regional language to prisoners from outside the state and English to those who require it are also going on in full swing. There are prisoners who are pursuing even PG courses, professional courses such as LLB and one research scholar within the prisons in this state.

Yet another area which has been drastically developed is library. The Central prisons alone have over 50,000 books in each library. We have obtained the library grant to purchase the books needed by the inmates. We teach library science to those interested. We are in the process of fully digitising the libraries too. In Trivandrum Central Prison, there are ‘kindles’ available for prisoners which they can take to their cells and read even after the lights are shut off. In each kindle, over 16,000 books are loaded.

Every week we have people from various NGOs and religious outfits coming into the prison to impart moral and religious education to inmates too. Counselling sessions, legal aid clinic and other welfare activities like Jail Days, TV/Film clubs, debate clubs, musical clubs, drama and sports activities- they all work towards learning and reform of prisoners.

Previously, the inmates in District Jail, Special Sub Jails and Sub Jails were never taken out of their cells except for their biological needs in the morning which has caused a lot of problems among cell mates. As per the Act & Rules only convicted prisoners are eligible for wages for employment within prisons. So only the convicts will be taken out of lock up. Being locked up in cells when the sun shines outside is a horrible thing. The emotional strain and the congestion as well as the foul air with in used to lead to frequent problems in these prisons where under trial prisoners and remanded accused are housed. Cliques will be formed and they fight against each other. Professional criminals teach novices the subtle art of crime and shares stories of how they evaded police and arrest. They plan prison breaks. And in the night time, they indulge in gay sex. Sometimes indoor games such as snake and ladder, caroms etc are given to them. They fight over that too.

An idle mind is devil’s workshop. So I issued an order that even under trial/ remand prisoners should be taken out of prisons and made to do some activity or the other. Now people go to these jails to teach inmates small skills such as paper bag making, umbrella making and handicrafts. Women prisoners are given training on toy and jewellery making. They are made to exercise and play some outdoor games. In the available spaces within the compound, vegetable cultivation has been encouraged. One Sub Jail now grows grapes and other exotic fruits in the ground next to the kitchen. In a special sub jail, an artificial pond has been made and fish farming is an activity there. Some prisoners love to do work in the kitchen, so breakfast items such as idly, puttu etc are prepared in large quantities for sales through Freedom Food Factory outlets. When these inmates are made to work for 8 to 9 hours every day, it gives them a lot of relief from boredom. They learn new things and interact positively to farming and other activities. They do not sit and sulk in a cell corner any more, but are a happier lot. There is considerably less in fighting or gay sex reported these days. Several inmates have told me that they do not require anti depressants or sleeping pills after they started working outside in the compounds. Also, the visits of psychiatrists to the prisons got reduced once we introduced this system.

It is sad to see very young males coming to the prisons in pathetic conditions of withdrawal symptoms. Boys as young as 18 and 19 with severe anxiety, depression and other symptoms related to drug withdrawal get arrested and they create turmoil within the cells. Sometimes they cause injuries to themselves by beating their heads against the bars or walls or biting their hands. The prison officers are not trained enough to handle such cases. Prolonged drug abuse also makes them mentally unstable. I always feel that the Excise Department should have a system or special programme with NGOs or Youth Commission and start targeting the youth in creating awareness about drugs so that this problem will not rise to menacing levels. Recently, a 19 year old boy who had severe withdrawal symptoms died in the hospital cell of the Medical College and his parents refused to accept his body! Not because they have any complaints against police or jail officers, but because they simply didn’t want him. “This boy has always been a terrible nuisance beating up even his parents. We disowned him long back. Why should we bother to accept him after his death? We don’t have any money for his burial.” His uncle told when we went to enquire why no one came to accept his body.

PRISON DIARIES (2) Humble Initiatives

PRISON DIARIES (2)

Humble Initiatives

              The tradition to thrash convicts at the prison gate itself is followed as a technique to instil discipline in them. In the 53 prisons in Kerala, there reside 8500 inmates on an average with just 400 officers to manage them, so a thorough beating the moment you enter the prison will make them submissive and obey each and every diktat of the officer in charge. The first initiative I took was to stop this horrible tradition. I had to issue two written orders, one banning canes within the prison and the other strictly prohibiting any sort of violence by officers against inmates other than the bare minimum needed in case of an emergency. I further installed CCTV cameras at all the gates and examination rooms of prisons (each prisoner is subjected to detailed body examination to prevent prohibited articles such as drugs, mobile phones etc being transported inside since we do not have body scanners) in order to protect the prisoners from third degree methods. In the beginning, there were protests even from my senior officers that there will be incidents of violence among prisoners and against staff. Initially when I stopped this practice, a few instances where prison officers got attacked by some inmates were reported. On deeper enquiry, it was revealed that the aggressors were either mental patients or those undergoing withdrawal symptoms. In normal situations, they would not have attacked officers in uniform.

              At a recent meeting with the Principal Accountant General who reviewed security of the prisons in the state, he asked me why I have not taken any steps to procure sophisticated arms and ammunition for the officers in the department. “We don’t need any.” My reply shocked him as well as the others in the conference hall. “Oh? So how can you prevent a jail break? How do you enforce discipline?” He queried. “We will deal with it when it happens.” I replied as he raised his brows. There are unwieldy 302 rifles for the men which we use in ceremonial parades and for guard duty. The officers do not have any revolvers or pistol for their use. Maybe small arms can serve their purpose in case of an emergency, but we definitely do not require SLR, INSAS or AK 47 for prison duties in Kerala. The only escape from a jail in the state during my tenure was from the dilapidated building in Pathanamthitta district jail. A new jail is under construction there, so timely repair of the broken iron mesh high up in a barrack’s toilet was not carried out to save costs. One late night, two Biharis who were arrested by the Excise officials for possessing narcotics, climbed over the wall of the toilet, wriggled through the broken wire mesh and got out of their cell. Once out in the compound they scaled the 10 feet wall by climbing a tree adjacent to it. Neither the person on duty at the gate nor the guard who was supposed to watch the CCTV footage noticed it. The other inmates were also oblivious to this escape since they were as quiet as cats. No sophisticated weapons could have prevented this escape. These prisoners are still at large, most probably back in Bihar.

              The next thing my mind went to was the prison cells per se, especially the toilet attached to it. Around 15 people are supposed to use one toilet in the night time when they are locked up. How hygienic that will be? I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder for cleanliness. My son calls me a cleanliness monster, even tiny specs of dust on the washbasin makes me spend an hour scrapping it clean. So, on my jail visits I walk into the cells and the toilets, much to the shock of officers and embarrassment of prisoners. Broken toilets were replaced, faulty drainage unclogged, doors repaired and lotions supplied in abundance at each cell. After all, we manufacture phenyl and detergents within the prisons, so I insisted that we sell them only after the needs of the prisoners are properly met.

Yet another thing I noticed was the bare feet of prisoners. I still have the desire to provide every inmate with slippers free of cost, but the present budget does not allow me this. So, I ordered the prison canteens to be stocked with slippers also for inmates to buy and use. A word about prison canteens will not be amiss. In all major prisons we have a small in-house canteens managed by selected prisoners themselves. These canteens sell snacks such as biscuits, chips, savouries, pastries, soaps, towels, shaving cream, razors, ice cream and other urgent amenities that the inmates require in addition to what is supplied to them by the department. Out of the total wages they earn a month from doing the various jobs and activities while in custody, they can spend up to one third at the canteens or for making phone calls. Most of these canteens run at a profit and at a few places, the profit margin itself runs to over a few lakh (one hundred thousand) rupees! Slippers also became a commodity in all canteens and now all inmates use them when they step out of their cells.

              Yet another unclean thing that I saw was wasted food. I have been noticing cats aplenty within the prison walls.  The officers and inmates explained that cats are good pets to relieve stress and tension and many people love their presence.  But I noticed crows and pigeons too in large numbers. An early morning visit revealed why these animals loved to roam around the prison compounds. Food! Strangely, the diet of prisoners is decided in the Prison Rules by the quantity per person. Every one, irrespective of their age, gender or physical requirements are provided 200 grams wheat flour/rice flour worth cooked idly, dosa, chappathi or upma as breakfast, 250 gram rice cooked for lunch and 200 gram rice/wheat worth cooked food as dinner with curries and other side dishes. Not everyone are able to consume this much food, so they throw the balance out of their vents in cells. The cats and birds line up at the back of the cells to eat this and in this process, the entire area gets scattered with food waste. A proposal to regulate diet based on quality is yet to come through, but a buffet system has now been introduced, allowing the inmates to self service so that we could save both food and money. Kerala being a state where non vegetarian dishes are served three times a week to inmates, this however resulted in a mad rush of prisoners to get more mutton and fish on their plates till instructions were given to serve non veg under supervision.

              Yet another problem relating to cleanliness was sorted out by installing biogas and incinerators in all major prisons. Instead of boiled water which used to take up a lot of kitchen work and LPG usage, Reverse Osmosis plants at the central prisons now supply pure drinking water and cooking water. Even when the whole of Kerala suffered spurts of outbreaks of dengue, malaria, leptospirosis and hepatitis A and B in 2017, none of the inmates got affected by any virus because of the clean environment in jails.

              My next move was to provide cots for the aged and disabled. I saw many elderly convicts and those with even bad disabilities sleeping on the floor. While in a handful of jails, concrete structures resembling a bed are inbuilt within the cells, in other prisons, all inmates sleep on mats on the floor. Overcrowding is a major problem in some prisons here too. In the space available for 4 persons, sometimes 12 persons are made to sleep. If there is an arthritis patient among them, it will be an arduous task for him to even turn to one side to ease his aching joints. The excuse again was- “If we put cots, it will occupy more space. Mats occupy less space.” Florence Nightingale is remembered for her untiring and selfless service to injured war veterans, but I always remember her quote that her biggest success in life was because she neither gave nor took any excuses. The real reason for stacking up inmates was the lack of adequate infrastructure. Kerala prisons have excellent carpentry units. We make furniture and sell it outside. I ordered them to make 6” x 4” cots, if possible 2 tier cots for the use in prison cells. Now at each prison we have at least one block provided with cots to house inmates above the age of 60 and the disabled. In all hospital blocks and women prisons, cots are already given, but slowly and steadily we hope to provide cots to all inmates in prisons.

              You may ask why I am treating these horrible criminals with so much kindness. It is because I have seen the other side of crime. If you think that all the bad people who commit various heinous crimes in the society are within the prisons, think again. If you think that all people within the prison cells are most horrible criminals, please think again. Undeniably, some are bad, very bad. Murderers, paedophiles, rapists, serial killers… all kinds of terrible persons are there.  Their guilt is proven beyond doubt and they are sentenced to spend their balance life in prisons. But that doesn’t mean that their incarceration should be torture and we should subject them to a dose of daily dose of harassment. Government spends a lot of money to keep these bad people away from the society in order to keep up the peace, law and order among the public. But they are taken care of too. They are under government’s care and protection. Their safety and security as well as their correction are the business of prison officers. We are duty bound to see that they get reformed and corrected from their bad ways so that they can go back, in case they do, to their families and lead productive lives. Even a condemned prisoner is given a chance to reform and repent and learn new things. At least they should be allowed to go to the gallows resigned with a heart purified with repentance and reconciliation!

 Carpentry Units

 Soap making Unit

PRISON DIARIES

Hello dears. My friends are asking me about my experience heading Prisons Department in Kerala. Whether I am happy working here, and what new changes I have brought in the department and the like. If I give a full account, it will run into a thesis paper. So, I am splitting it into parts for ease of reading.

Let me start at the beginning.

The Beginning

              Recently I read a book in which a strange idea was mooted. We should have islands to send convicted criminals to. All murderers should be sent to one island where they can murder each other, all rapists to another island for doing rape to each other, all thieves to yet another island, let them steal among themselves! I laughed a lot reading it, yet history is replete with instances such as these. Australia was a place where the British Empire sent its criminals away! That way, we could have saved a lot of money which we now spent for infrastructure, security, salary to prison officers and staff as well as education, correction and rehabilitation of inmates, not to mention their food, clothing and medicine.

There is a common misconception among the public that Prisons & Correctional Service is a branch under the Police Department and that the officers working at prisons are police officers. It was created as a wing separate from the police department under the Home Ministry because the roles of police and prison officers are so different from each other. As a police officer, one of my duties for the 31 years in the police department had been to detect crime cases, arrest the criminals with clinching evidence against him/her/them and present the evidence before the concerned courts to ensure a just punishment. I never bothered about the situation or circumstances of the criminal, the social issues he must have had, the traps which he might have fallen into or his hunger or financial crunch. It never bothered me too if he rotted in prisons or not. He committed a crime, let him suffer- was my mentality like everyone else. Off and on in our lives, we get some sparks from somewhere. Hey and presto, one such spark, a wish to get posted in the prison department which only God knows sprouted from where, got granted and here I am, now with over 20 months of experience as Director General, Prisons & Correctional Services Kerala. And each day, I feel as if it is not just a career or duty that I am doing, it’s a great social service and charity too!

Traditionally, prisons are abhorrent, abominable places. Dark, damp, despondent. No one would like to even spend a day there, let alone a life time. Yet, thousands of people are sentenced to spend their life time within the bars of prisons in our country. Because they committed crimes most heinous. Because they are a threat to the society and should be kept away from peace loving people. Because it is a punishment. There was a time when incarceration was the least of the problems for a convict. The physical and mental torture that break him to his last bones ensures that he will never ever have a normal life. Within a month of my taking charge as head of prisons in Kerala in January 2017, I received two complaints, one relating to a sub jail in the south and the other to a district jail in the central Kerala.

A single mother, a professor in a reputed college was in tears when she explained that her only son, an engineering student was arrested for possession of a few grams of cannabis and he was stripped naked and beaten up black and blue at the prison. The boy who got bail in two days slashed his wrist with a razor out of utter desolation and shame. She rushed him to a hospital and saved his life, but he keeps murmuring that he will kill himself. She wanted me to punish the men who resorted to this third degree method on her son. Sad part is that, the boy could not recognize who beat him, once he was taken to the jail. He kept shaking as if in fits and refused to raise his head. The mental trauma was too much for him! I took action against those who were on duty during the day he was beaten up and also issued a direction to stop this practice of stripping and beating those who step inside the prison gates. In Malayalam, the name used to refer to this is ‘nadayadi’, meaning beating at the gate. The Superintendent of this prison tried to justify this saying, “We do it so that the criminals will not repeat such offenses in future!” Shocked at this attitude, I shouted at him but later realized that everyone in the department was of the same mentality.

The second instance was when a woman called me over phone to say that the officer on duty at the prison gate where her son was remanded to judicial custody took her gold necklace as bribe since she was not carrying much money with her for not beating up the boy. She asked, “He took even my thali (mangalyasutra) Madam. Will you ask him to at least return my thali?” Another shock to me. So these people resort to beating up for money. So that they can demand huge amounts to spare the rod! I placed that officer under suspension and initiated disciplinary action. But how many can you suspend? We need officers to manage the prisons.

We spend money to give correctional training to the inmates, but actually, training should be given to prison officers teaching them human rights and ethics. Train them how not to break a man to smithereens inside out. I thought that in my state things would be better than this. As ADGP in Vigilance, I had observed that among the government departments, the least number of complaints and allegations were from prison department. In some years not even a single complaint relating to prisons comes. I was happy to assume charge in a department which got its sur-name ‘Correctional Services’ and remember thinking with a chuckle that I am happy it is not ‘corruption’ al services! I have to admit that only a handful of prison officers are bad. Most of them are very hard-working, dedicated and sincere officers. I pity most of them too because they so constantly interact with negativity which can sometimes affect our own minds.

The first thing I noticed when I visited a prison under me was the smell. I have a sensitive nose. That smell is distinct to prison cells alone. This smell is there in the open prisons and the cleaner women’s prisons too. It’s not the smell of 15 sweaty men huddled up in a cell room or that they have to share a toilet, it is not even because of unwashed cloths or old bedding, but it is the smell of despondency. Lack of freedom scares a person; it is the biggest bane of a human being. Even if it’s a golden cage, a bird hates to be caged. Similarly whatever facilities we give the prisoners, the fact that they are put inside a cell and a lock is firmly put on its door scares them. Despite the presence of others, they do not sleep well. Thoughts of despair hound them. Even normal people become mental wrecks within a week of incarceration. It is in addition to this that they get beaten up too. Violence inside the prison against each other also is the result of this despondency. Cliques are formed, a leader gets elected and they try to create a microcosmic goonda-land inside prisons just for some vague satisfaction of identity. It is quite bad.

What can I do? Stalwarts have worked as Prison Heads before me. Still, sometimes the conditions are so bad that even they would have been helpless, I thought. But something has to be done. At the central prison in Trivandrum, one inmate said, “Madam, can you do something? We admit we are criminals. We are here for offenses dome by us. But the moment we get out after our sentence is served; a police jeep will be waiting for us outside the prison gates. It will pick us up and we’ll be taken straight to the police station. They then interrogate us and arrest us again for offenses not committed by us, because once we did similar crimes and we come back here again. We would hardly know about those cases which police charge us with. Most of the times, we do not get any chance to explain or even speak.  For the police, a few more cases got solved. Can you stop this?” I remember getting a bad taste in my mouth. How do the police know the release date of such convicts unless the prison officers tell them?

“Madam, every day we get calls from the local police stations asking us details of convicts getting released that day,” came the reply.  “Don’t tell them.” I instructed. “If we don’t, then they will not come to take prisoners to courts or hospitals.” Another weak explanation. While it is the duty of police officers to escort prisoners to courts and hospitals as her the Prison Act, the Act or Rules does not mention that it is the prison officer’s duty to inform the police station regarding prisoner’s release dates. I immediately issued orders prohibiting prison officers to divulge unnecessary information to anyone unless they ask for it in writing and the head of department approves the sharing of information. A prison sentence should not make a person live with a lifelong stigma or the tag that he is a habitual modus operandi criminal even after his release. Not after we take so much effort to correct him and educate him with vocational skills so that he will never indulge in crime again in the society. Still things needed to change so much!