Lowering the bar

WHEN the accused in the Beant Singh assassination case escaped from the Burail jail in Chandigarh on January 21, 2004, the harsh spotlight w...

WHEN the accused in the Beant Singh assassination case escaped from the Burail jail in Chandigarh on January 21, 2004, the harsh spotlight was fixed on the lack of security and dismal condition of prisons in Punjab. A year and some heated discussion later, the change in the state8217;s prisons has only been for the worse.

Broken walls, abandoned barracks and wireless communication networks that don8217;t communicate. Most Punjab jails have no CCTV cameras. As for facilities for inmates, they only exist in the jail manual. These 8216;reformation centres8217; are in dire need of reform themselves. A survey of the state8217;s seven prominent jails8212;Patiala, the maximum security Nabha jail, Nabha open jail, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Amritsar central jail and the Jalandhar jail8212;shows how serious the need for reform is.

A WORKING wireless communication network is not what you will find in these prisons. Gursharan Singh Sidhu, superintendent at the Patiala central jail says: 8216;8216;We aren8217;t given funds. The wireless set has been abandoned for years. Despite our repeated requests, nothing moves. The CCTV cameras are not functional.8217;8217;

Other jail superintendents have similar complaints, especially over inadequate funds. Faridkot jail, which has about 177 inmates, is on the verge of collapse. The old barracks are breaking down and new ones are being built at a leisurely pace.

Built with mud, lime and bricks, most prisons in Punjab date over 50 years. Despite frequent jail breaks, including the one in Ferozepur, where three prisoners escaped after making a hole in the barrack wall and killing a jail staff last October, nothing has improved.

In these conditions, the jail staff is finding the going tough. 8216;8216;The sanitation here is worse than slums. Electricity remains suspended for most of the day. How are we going to maintain discipline and security?8217;8217; asks Jagjit Singh, superintendent at the Jalandhar central jail.

The one that got away

AMRITSAR CENTRAL JAIL
Spread over 89 acres, Amritsar8217;s central jail is a model prison8212;though one that has no followers in the state. Clean barracks and adequate medical facilities are what makes this prison stand out in the state.
Personal initiative rather than government assistance is what has fuelled this change. Says jail superintendent Capt retd SP Singh: 8216;8216;Funds was our main problem. This prison has seen much improvement in the past six months but we were not given any grants to make these changes. I had to call social organisations and ask for donations to get going.8217;8217;
As a result of a new interaction with non-governmental organisations, women inmates8212;about 1058212;have finally got a chance to study. Says Nirmaljit Sandhu, an activist of the Vision India Foundation that holds classes in prison: 8216;8216;Earlier they couldn8217;t read at all. Now, they can write in Punjabi and even English.

The weapons given to jail security personnel are in a state of disuse. The staff is equipped with weapons like .303 rifles and Muscat rifles which are relics of the Raj days. 8216;8216; Even the ammunition required for these weapons isn8217;t manufactured any more,8217;8217; says P S Sharma, superintendent at the Nabha jail.

Sentry posts lying vacant are a sad comment on how our prisons are guarded. 8216;8216;I do not even remember when I last fired a gunshot,8217;8217; says a security in charge of one of the jails.

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MEDICAL facilities for the inmates are conspicuous by their absence. Ambulances are few and even those are so ill-equipped that they are hardly more than mere vehicles. The official vehicles of jail superintendents are over 17 years old and can barely go more than a few kilometres.

The Punjab jail manual states that there should be at least one medical officer and one pharmacist for 500 inmates. But usually there8217;s only one medical officer for about a 1,000. Ferozepur jail has over 1,500 inmates and only one medical officer, according to Dr Anup Singh. 8216;8216;There are no medical facilities, except medicines for minor ailments. If an inmate has a cardiac arrest, it would take at least one hour for us to take him to a hospital.8217;8217;

But perhaps even that will not be enough for the authorities to take note and set their prisons in order.