Let sunlight into our prisons

What are the problems? Let me enumerate some key ones. First, from my experience in running Tihar a decade ago, prisons as institutions are not considered to be a part of critical infrastructure of value. They are deliberately hidden from public view. This allows all possible social ills to flourish within their precincts. Further, a whole lot of negative myths surround prison as a service. This ensures that it is insulated from any form of exposure, allowing the mafia inside the prison system to operate unchecked.

Prisons remain isolated from legislative bodies as well, a fact underlined by the lack of effective prison legislation. Imagine the world8217;s largest elected democracy still has to live with the Prison Act of 1894. This isolation impinges on executive action. Prisons, as institutions, are barely considered when it comes to state budgets. As a result, they find themselves starved of adequate funding. This systematically constructed isolation of our prisons deflects the gaze of civil society institutions, which includes the media. As a result, society remains largely ignorant about, and indifferent to, prison reforms.

This state of affairs suits the police too, for it ensures that what they cannot do outside prison walls, they can do within them. They respond by rounding up the 8220;law breakers8221; and keeping them out of sight in punishing situations so that they are forced into total submission. To be consigned to live in sub-human conditions, even if not convicted, is message enough. But the police seem to forget that such submission is only too temporary. It is in such an environment that criminal gangs prosper and grow more vicious. The best friendships, even in the criminal world, are formed in adverse situations.

While regular magisterial inspections are mandatory, little comes of them. After all, who is to judge the judges? If the inspections and their reports were taken seriously, then why is it that Indian prisons continue to have a very high population of undertrials? Or large vacancies of doctors? Or poorly-equipped dispensaries having no para-medical staff? Or bad food? Who can refuse the honourable judges when they seek information or action taken reports?

Then take our prison administration. India does not have an Inspectorate of Prisons. With their seniors busy in other more important departments, prison staff are left on their own, barring an occasional court summons on a petition filed by a prisoner. In any case, prison posting is treated as punishment posting. Once posted, the staff spend their entire life feeling truly imprisoned. They get very few chances to be posted to some other department and get to perceive prison administration in a broader light 8212; in terms of rehabilitation, for instance. Training is negligible and research non-existent. Tihar to date, despite being the biggest prison complex in the Asia Pacific region, does not have a prison staff training centre of its own.

So where do we go from here? How do we urgently make up for our bankruptcy in terms of planning and investment, both in the hardware and software of prison administration? The Central government, under a modernisation grant, is providing money to the states to build more prisons. The latter have to contribute only 25 per cent of the cost. Yet some states are not even doing this!

We also need to urgently replace the Police Act of 1861 and the Prison Act of 1894. The Model Prison Manual, compiled by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, has been in circulation since 2005. Once it is notified, many of the problems in the administration of our prisons would be addressed. What8217;s more, it would usher in a more transparent regime.

Let sunlight into our prisons.

It will prove to be the biggest disinfectant.

The writer is director general, Bureau of Police Research and Development