Short Essay on Indian Jail Reforms Committee !
The Indian Jail Reforms Committee 1919-20 which was appointed to suggest measures for prison reforms was headed by Sir Alexender Cardew. The Committee visited prisons in Burma, Japan, Phillipines, Honkong and Britain besides the Indian jails, and came to the conclusion that prisons should not only have deterring influence but they should also have a reforming effect on inmates.
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The Committee underlined the need for reformative approach to prison inmates and discouraged the use of corporal punishment in jails. It recommended utilisation of prison inmates in productive work so as to bring about their reformation. The Committee also emphasised the need for an intensive after-care programme for the released prisoners for their rehabilitation.
As a measure of prison reform, the Jail Committee further recommended that the maximum intake capacity of each jail should be fixed, depending on its shape and size. In the meantime, there was a movement against retention of solitary confinement as a method of punishment. Taking a lead in this direction, the State of Bombay abolished solitary cells from its prisons. Other Provinces followed the suit and reformed their prisons on humanitarian principles.
The Pakwasa Committee in 1949 accepted the system of utilising prisoners as labour for road work without any intensive supervision over them. It was from this time onwards that the system of payment of wages to inmates for their labour was introduced. Certain good time laws woe also introduced in jails under which the inmates who behaved well during their term of imprisonment were rewarded by suitable reduction in the period of their sentence. The ultimate object of these reforms was to protect the society from criminals, to reform the offenders, to deter them and to extract retribution for criminal acts to the satisfaction of the society.