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!
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