Goodbye to B-class

It8217;s a jailhouse rock of sorts. From now on, the 250 privileged B-class denizens of the Capital8217;s Tihar jail will not get their special room, TV, toilet and, yes, their glass of milk, thanks to the recommendations of the Santosh Dubey committee that the dual class system in this jail should go. They will now lead a lifestyle similar to that of their C-class counterparts who, incidentally, number around 9,000. The move to dismantle a system of classification created under a colonial dispensation is a step in the right direction since it recognises the principle that everybody is equal under the law and in the custodial system. Prisoners from now on will be classified not by such absurd criteria as whether they are graduates and income-tax payers but by far more relevant ones like their sex, age and offence. After all, a graduate can commit a crime that is more heinous than that committed by a 8220;seventh-class pass8221; and get away with lighter punishment just by virtue of his exalted educational status.

Butgenuine jail reform must go much further than tinkering with prisoner-classification procedures and abolishing anachronistic privileges. It8217;s ironic that jail reform today has come to mean the scaling down of facilities rather than the other way round. While criminal behaviour demands penal incarceration, no purpose is served if law-breakers emerge from their spells in jail even more criminalised than when they went in. This is an issue that has exercised several committees in this country, right from the days when the All-India Jail Manual Committee of 1957-59 held its deliberations. The National Human Rights Commission has repeatedly pointed out that prisons in this country are characterised by gross over-crowding, squalor, and maladmininstration.

There are at least three areas of jail reform that need urgent attention. The first is that of over-crowding. Because of the unconscionably large number of under-trials and an exceedingly slow criminal justice system, prison facilities are stretched to thelimit. Although the Supreme Court had ruled in Common Cause vs the Union of India that cases pending in the various criminal courts should be expedited, there has been little progress on this. Given this reality, existing facilities must be expanded to the extent possible and bottlenecks created by arbitrary delays minimised. Another area of concern is the hapless situation of women and children in most Indian prisons. Given their physical vulnerability, efforts must be made to protect them and cater to their special needs. General facilities, too, need to be shored up. While it may not be the intention of the authorities to consider the fare dished out to prisoners as part of their punishment, it amounts to this for all practical purposes. Jails all over the country are said to spend amounts ranging from Rs 10 to a pathetic Rs 2 a day on food per prisoner. Even fodder costs more than this! Indeed, the system cries for reform and the sooner administrators get down to doing this, the better.