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!