Reform jails in Maharashtra

Three women who were arrested from various parts of Maharashtra on suspicion of being Maoist sympathisers have moved the Sewri court accusing prison officials of assaulting them for trying to highlight problems in the jail, turning the spotlight on our prisons.

Even a casual observer would know the abysmal conditions prevailing in our jails. The inmates, who are mostly forced to live in sub-human conditions, are often subject to various forms of abuse as well. When some well-informed inmates, like the alleged Maoist sympathisers, try to educate the others, the authorities, who obviously have a vested interest in the status quo, come down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks.

The irony is that it is the duty of the authorities to not only inform the inmates of their rights, but also to safeguard those rights. After all, the purpose of a prison term is not simply to punish a criminal. A healthy correctional system is one that also tries to reform a criminal so as to prepare him/her for life after the sentence.

What happens in our system, however, is very different. Many of those who go to jail for extended periods, either as undertrials or as convicts, are changed by the experience forever, and not in a positive sense. Worse, they are stigmatised by those outside. Unless we stop treating jails as a place to dump the wayward and forget about them, they are only likely to produce more criminals.