Treat prisoners as humans

The new prison manual approved by the Union Cabinet contains many proposals which have been made from time to time to reform the country’s prison system. It prescribes processes and procedures which should have been common practice in prisons but are absent, ignored or violated in every prison. The idea of prisoners having human rights
has not been fully accepted by jail authorities and even by society. The new manual may be a step forward to that recognition. There are about 4,00,000 prisoners in the country and over 65 per cent of them are undertrials. About 70 per cent of the prisoners are illiterate. The preponderance of the undertrial population is a shameful indicator of the failure of the penal and judicial system. None of the efforts made in the past to bring timely justice to them has worked. The new manual offers legal help, proposes to set up undertrial review committees and to hold legal literacy classes. But the main need is for undertrials to get bail in time and for the trial to be initiated and concluded quickly.

The manual prescribes regular health screenings for women prisoners, special care in their treatment, counselling programmes and sensitisation of jail staff on gender issues and sexual violence. Special guidelines have also been laid down on the rights of prisoners sentenced to death. They include provision of legal aid, access to necessary and relevant documents etc and facilities to meet relatives. The manual prescribes that prisons should have the use of modern technology and software systems. It also recognises the need to provide after care systems for released prisoners so that they can be rehabilitated and integrated into the society. This is a major challenge because a large number of prisoners take to crimes again and return to prisons. Society is often responsible for this because the suspicions and ill treatment continue even after the release of prisoners. Prisoners should also be imparted skills which will help them to earn their livelihood after they are released from prions. This is especially important because a majority of the prisoners are from weaker sections like dalits and minorities and are mostly poor and illiterate.
Prescribing good procedures, steps and safeguards to protect the rights of prisoners is not enough.

Similar proposals and guidelines made in the past have not been sincerely implemented. Prescribing some better steps may not make much difference unless there is an attitudinal change among the authorities and in society. Prisoners should be consid-ered as human beings and not as convicts.