Prison Diaries- 5 Making a Real Difference

Prison Diaries- 5

Making a Real Difference

A previous DG of Prisons is remembered even now for the drastic changes he made in the Kerala prison administration. Dr. Alexander Jacob. He introduced tasty chappathies and chicken made in prison for the public. Wheat balls (‘unda’ in Malayalam) used to be the staple diet of prison inmates till around 1990, when chappathies replaced ‘undas’ as dinner and sometimes even breakfast. Dr Alexander Jacob, known in police circles as a walking encyclopaedia is a connoisseur of food too. After tasting the chappathy and chicken made by the prisoners, he got the idea of making this heavenly taste available to the public also at a cheap rate. It is that initiative which now became a revolution in the state. Today food units are there in all the major jails and we have vehicles taking hot food to various places within the city for sale to public. We also have cafeterias in Trivandrum, Kannur and Cheemeni. Now jail biriyanis, ghee rice, puttu and kadala, variety of chicken preparations and tapioca as well as snacks, pickles and chips are also in high demand. The women inmates are given specialized training in cooking.

Another predecessor of mine had another novel, out of the box idea to make fashion cloths in the prisons. Sri. Loknath Behera, the present State Police Chief. He served as DG Prison only for 6 months, but in that time, he opened a beautiful cafeteria for Trivandrum Central Prison, a new office for the prison headquarters and an boutique titled aptly as ‘Free Fashinista’ for selling designer outfits made by prisoners for the public. He even designed a few cloths and made the staff of the department as models for these cloths. I remember getting briefly associated with this since the idea was so unique and had every reason to be successful. Now we make our own cloths in the hand-loom units within the prisons and create gent’s designer wear in pure linen and cotton which is sold at half the market price through our outlets. Ladies dress like kurtis, tops, churidars, night dress, skirts, leggings as well as bed linen, towels, mattresses, floor mats, pillows and other products such as candles, soaps, detergent, cleaning lotions and incense sticks are also sold through our outlets. A tailoring unit is also functioning on full swing here. A budding idea is thus in full bloom, not only earning money for the department but making the public appreciate the talents of the inmates.

Similarly the carpentry units, organic vegetable farming, fish and aqua farming, animal husbandry and the umbrella, handicrafts and jewellery units in women prisons are in full swing. There is a lot of demand from the public for jail products. During festival seasons, we have organized exhibitions of jail products in various public places. During one such day, our sales incomes crossed Rs 50,000 which really was quite surprising. There was huge demand even for the handicrafts items on display made by talented prisoners.  Even the tender coconuts got sold within seconds of opening the sales!

In January 2016, when I assumed charge as DG Prisons, the total number of prisoners in jails was 7612, of which 218 were females. As on today, the number of total prisoners has increased to 7926.  But the number of women prisoners has decreased to 191, of which the convicted prisoners are only 60 and the rest 131 are under trial prisoners. How did this happen?
 

The officers in prisons department have no role to play in controlling the number of prisoners in jails. The society itself plays the most important role in creating criminals. There are gross inadequacies and inequalities prevailing among people in the society. Lack of money, unemployment, deprivation, mental instability- are all children of the skewed society in which we live. Besides, there are groups- mafias and gangs who operate on the sly to trap others and drag them to the mire of crime. People who disturb the peace and create problems for others by resorting to illegal means are bound to get arrested and put behind bars. This is the sole purpose of the criminal justice system in our country. However, prison officers can take effective steps to correct those within the jails and see to it that they get reformed and not repeat the same mistakes once out of the jail. It is for this purpose that we give a lot of importance to vocational skill imparting, ethical discourses, libraries and promotion of their talents before the public. Their skills will help them to do some good job once released. Showcasing their talents is expected to help the society accept them back in their midst. If reputed organizations employ skilled jailbirds, then that indeed will go a long way in reducing their stigma in the society as well as recidivism. 

Sadly, how much ever work the prison officers carry out; the proper rehabilitation of a released prisoner is dependent totally on the released person himself. If he feels that he is more comfortable in resorting to crimes than do honest work, then he will go back to his old ways. And crimes are increasing in leaps and bounds every day. Sons killing mothers, fathers killing sons or daughters, revenge killings, minors getting sexually molested, all types of prohibited substances manufactured and marketed, illegal money transactions, cheating, domestic and public violence against women, new modus of cheating, cyber crimes and IT offenses- you will be surprised to know the efforts some people take to commit complicated crimes! Men are so difficult to be reformed, that is what I discovered in the past 22 months. They just refuse to get corrected. They will be obedient and well behaved within the confines of prisons, but once outside, they become the dame old beast. Recently a woman came to me requesting that her husband who is incarcerated may not be given paroles since out in parole, he not only beats her and their son up, but also is sexually aggressive to their teen aged daughter. And this guy is very quiet and disciplined in the jail too!

But women, once released, do not come back to prisons after doing the same crimes again. They really do get reformed and corrected. I know of the released 6 of the 24 women inmates who had obtained driver’s license after getting trained on automobile driving have found employments successfully. One lady started her own tailoring unit, another started a poultry business, yet another started a small tea shop. These were all previously repeat offenders of sex workers and illicit liquor/cannabis sellers. Recently a woman came back to the prison within six months of release, surprising me. She is an expert in handicrafts and cooking and could have got a job anywhere with her plethora of talents and vocational certificates. Yet she chose to commit the same crime of selling arrack and got arrested. She was given Rs 15,000 on release as grant to start some entrepreneurship and she also got a lump sum of Rs 30,000 for employment in prisons. If she wanted she could have obtained a loan too, up to Rs 50,000. Despite all this, she committed the same crime and did not run away from police or resist arrest. When I asked her why she came back, she answered, “It is safer here. I will not get robbed, beaten up or raped here. I don’t have to search for a safe place to sleep at night; I get my food and medicines in time here. I have friends and caring people here. I am more comfortable here than out there.”

I don’t know if prisons should be such a safe place for criminals. Our duty is not to keep housing persons who have no other place to go. We are not running homes. Still her words pricked my heart.  

No wonder that I don’t feel that I am doing just a job. I am also carrying out a great charitable activity as DG, Prisons! 

 

(Concluded)