By M.Y.Siddiqui

Union Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has raised concern over failure of the States/Union Territories (UTs) to adopt Model Prison Manual 2016 for improving jail administration and security of jails. In this connection, a circular of May 2, 2022 to States/UTs points out that given the importance of prisons in criminal justice system, the Government of India has been sharing with States/UTs the latest guiding principles, best practices, directives of the Supreme Court of India (SCI) and recommendations of Parliamentary Standing Committee for efficient prison administration.

A Model Prison Manual 2016, forwarded to States/UTs was a step in the direction of bringing uniformity in governing jails in the country. MHA maintains many States have not adopted the Model Prison Manual. They have been asked to expedite adoption of the Manual.. To strengthen prison administration and security of prisons, eleven-point circular enjoins the States/UTs for strengthening hospitals and dispensaries to reduce requirement of referral of inmates outside the prison complex, physiological assessment by competent medical professional to reduce depression among inmates. Circular says assessment of inmates by psychologists and correctional experts may be done regularly to reduce level of stress and improve their behavioural correction.

Other measures to be taken include modernization of correctional jail staff for efficient management of prisons regularly, making use of innovative measures for a better prison administration, prevention of prisons as breeding grounds for anti-social activities, resorting to inter-jail transfer of staff, avoiding intra-jail rejig of staff, rotation of prison staff regularly to minimize corruption and complacency in prison administration, restriction of unnecessary movement of jail staff in and outside of the jail, inspection of jail structure and periphery  walls of jail to maintain distance between outer wall and jail wall to prevent incidents of throwing contraband items from outside.

There is a special mention of NGOs in jail activities. Circular stresses on their background check emphasizing regular verification of credentials of NGOs, ensuring effective jamming solution with modern technology to prevent illegal access to and use of mobile phones by inmates., segregation of first time offenders and repeat offenders in prison wards complex to avoid negative influence on first time or new offenders etc. 

India’s prison administration is most corrupt because of prevailing collusive culture. Inmates are denied basic human rights as per the Jail Manual. Inmates are provided poor healthcare support. Medicines provided are mostly generic and substandard. Food supplied is mostly unhygienic. Since prison is State Subject in the Constitution of India, money provided by the Centre for modernization of jails is gobbled up by corrupt state machinery and bogus utilization certificates are issued by states, resulting in sub-human conditions in our prisons and continuing sliding of standards and facilities in Jails.

As per a latest data on prison population by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) as on December 31, 2020, there are 488511 prisoners including pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners. Official capacity of prisons is 414033 and occupancy level as on December 31, 2020 is 118.0 per cent indicating overcrowding of Jails.. Three-fourth of the total inmates are under trials. In other words, three out of four inmates are under trials. They are the poor lot implicated by unscrupulous police for petty crimes, for which they were unable to pay off to the police to escape the rigours of incarceration. Even as under trials, such poor lot does not have money to pay the lawyer for bail and related bonds. Legal aids to the poor provided by the government is also embroiled in controversy where lawyer seeks adjournments, gets fee for each date, thus delaying the incarceration.

Since Independence, there have been four commissions/committees on prison reforms. All such reports recommended correctional measures besides a modicum of standards of human rights of prisoners. Implementation has been poor with the result our jails are in total mess. Outcome has been those who come out of prison no matter they were innocent turn up as hardened criminals, so much for making Indian Jails as correctional/reforms centres!

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