Essay on Plea for setting up Prison Panel in India!
The Government of India appointed an All India Jail Reforms Committee in 1980 with Justice A. N. Mulla as its Chairman. The Committee suggested setting up of a National Prison Commission as a continuing body to bring about modernisation of prisons in India.
The Committee also made a suggestion that the existing dichotomy of prison administration at Union and State level should be removed. It recommended a total ban on the heinous practice of clubbing together juvenile offenders with the hardened criminals in prisons.
The atrocities and personal assaults on juvenile prisoners which came to the notice of the authorities in the notorious Tihar Jail Inmate case and the Agra Protective Home case have served as an eye opener for the administrators. Consequently, a comprehensive legislation was enacted for the security and protective care of delinquent juveniles. The Mulla Committee also recommended segregation of mentally disturbed prisoners and their placement in mental asylums.
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Yet another recommendation of the Jail Committee was regarding classification of prisoners on scientific and rational basis. For this purpose, certain advanced countries have appointed Ombudsman for deciding the prisoner’s grievances. Similar procedure may be adopted in India as well.
Some other recommendations of the Mulla Jail Committee were as follows:—
1. The condition of prisons should be improved by making adequate arrangements for food, clothing, sanitation, ventilation etc.
2. The prison staff should be properly trained and organised into different cadres. It would be advisable to constitute an All India Service called the Indian Prisons & Correctional Service for recruitment of Prison officials.
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3. After-care, rehabilitation and probation should constitute an integral part of prison service. Unfortunately, probation law is not being properly implemented in the country’.
4. The media and publicmen should be allowed to visit prisons and allied correctional institutions periodically so that public may have first hand information about conditions inside prisons and be willing to co-operate with prison officials in rehabilitation work.
5. Lodging of undertrials in jail should be reduced to bare minimum and they should be kept separate from the convicted prisoners. Since undertrials constitute a sizable portion of prison population, their number can be reduced by speedy trials and liberalisation of bail provisions.
It may be noted that the amendment in Cr. P.C. and insertion of a new Section 436-A by the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2005 is indeed a positive step to bring down the rising graph of undertrial prisoners in Indian jails. The section provides that where an undertrial has undergone detention for a period extending upto one-half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for that offence, he shall be released by the Court on his personal bond with or without sureties.
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6. The Government should make an Endeavour to provide adequate resources and funds for prison reforms.
The National Expert Committee on Women Prisoners headed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer in its report submitted to the Government in February 1988 recommended induction of more women in the police force in view of their special role in tackling women and child offenders. Envisaging a far greater, significant and useful role of women police in context of changing needs of society, the Committee observed that women-police have a greater potential to cool, defuse and de-escalate many situations and therefore, greater use should be made of them.
Women can be employed in non-combative roles requiring restraint, patience and endurance. The women police should be an integral part of the police set-up, with a special role in juvenile crime squads specially in urban areas. They should be specially trained to deal with agitations and mob upsurges in a humane and sensitive manner and acquire mastery over tactics of unarmed combat.