Open House Policy

The rash of jail breaks and other prison-related controversies this month indicate that little has changed in the two decades since Zail Singh8217;s visit to Tihar. The jails continue to be utterly mismanaged, compromising not only the human rights of prisoners but also the equally critical features of security and discipline.

Take the situation in Tihar, which saw Phoolan Devi8217;s killer escape this week in circumstances that suggest ineptitude as well as complicity of jail staff. Tihar is actually a complex of seven prisons, making it one of the largest jails in the world. The infrastructure provides for 4,000 prisoners. But the pressure on space has been growing at such a rate that Tihar actually squeezes in over 12,000 inmates. There is no norm in the country of what is an optimum capacity of a prison.

This, despite a high-powered panel set up way back in 1980 by the Indira Gandhi Government to propose prison reforms. The provocation apparently was Indira Gandhi8217;s first-hand experience of the conditions in Tihar when she suffered a brief spell of incarceration in 1978. Soon after she returned to power, Indira Gandhi appointed the Justice A N Mulla Committee to review the jail system at the all-India level, even though the subject falls squarely in the states8217; domain.

To be sure, the Mulla Committee recommended, in its elaborate report submitted in 1983, that the Constitution be amended to shift the subject of prisons from the state list to the concurrent list. That never happened. The Centre hasn8217;t still found a way of having a say in the matter of jails. As a result, jails continue to be governed by an outdated law enacted by the British Raj in 1894.

And, since it is beyond the Centre8217;s jurisdiction, the jail conditions vary greatly from state to state, or even from prison to prison. India has not been able to formulate, as suggested by the Mulla Committee, a national policy on prisons.

One major casualty of this has been the Mulla Committee8217;s recommendation that prisons be classified into special security prisons, maximum security prisons, medium security prisons and minimum security prison.

Such a classification could have well served as a safeguard against the kind of jailbreaks witnessed in the recent past.

All those being tried or convicted for murder would have been put in more compact and better secured prisons. That would have reduced the chances of Jagtar Singh Hawara, an accused in the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh, digging a tunnel in Burail jail without being detected.

Likewise, tighter arrangements in a high security prison, presumably including high-tech gadgetry, would have made it harder for Sher Singh Rana, main accused in the murder of bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi, to escape from Tihar on the basis of a fake warrant.

The only concession Indian jails make to the principle of segregation is that those involved in heinous offences are put in a different enclosure. The jail staff, canteen, gate and recreational facilities are, however, the same for all prisoners. The resources are spread thin, leading to laxity in security and discipline.

Another deleterious factor is the low morale of the jail staff. If lower police personnel complain about lack of emoluments and growth opportunities, their counterparts in the jail department get a worse deal. Even the upper echelons are not particularly attractive. In fact, in 1996 the National Human Rights Commission deprecated the practice of filling the post of IGP 8212; the highest job in the jail department 8212; with IPS officers rather than officers from within the prison service. This has led to a frequent transfers from the post of IGP. The resultant demoralisation in the ranks of the prison department has made the jails more unruly and more porous than before.

Power in the prisoners8217; hands
IN October 2002, the Arthur Road jail authorities received an intelligence report suggesting some members of the Chhota Rajan gang were plotting to kill breakaway associate Om Prakash Singh aka OP behind bars. A month later, on November 24, eyewitnesses said, some men pinned OP to the floor in the bathing area in Nashik jail, where he was lodged, while one man tightened the noose till he died.

Jail officials tried to attribute the death to a heart attack, the biggest of the lies that tried to cover-up the smuggling of a nylon rope, cricket gear and some weapons inside the Nashik jail premises.

But the biggest giveaway was the mysterious transfer of 13 Chhota Rajan men 8212; including top aide Ravi Mallesh Bora alias D K Rao 8212; from Arthur Road to Nashik jail the day before OP was murdered. 8216;8216;It8217;s unusual for the jail authorities to move out all Rajan men at the same time, especially when they were being produced in the Mumbai courts at short intervals,8217;8217; points out OP8217;s widow Meenakshi.

As the discrepancies were highlighted, erstwhile special inspector-general of police prisons U D Rajwade ordered Aurangabad deputy inspector-general Dhanajirao Choudhary to investigate the incident. Subsequently, Arthur Road jail superintendent A Mahure was transferred out. There was clear evidence to suggest Rajan was in regular touch with Rao while the latter was in the Arthur Road jail; connivance of jail officials was not ruled out.

According to underworld sources, Chhota Rajan masterminded the murder of his former lieutenant partly out of fear that he would be upstaged and partly because Singh was badmouthing him. Singh was to be released three months later, and there was talk he would join hands with Rajan8217;s former aide and present rival Hemant Pujari.

Apart from Rajan8217;s men, Dawood Ibrahim8217;s aides are a force to reckon with behind bars. Dawood8217;s younger brother Iqbal Kaskar and three associates, for instance, occupy four rooms in the jail at a time when 3200 prisoners cram into quarters meant for 832. Cellphones and weapons, of course, are commonplace.

If Mahure got off lightly, the suspension of deputy inspector general of prisons T S Bhamre 8212; in-charge of the high-security Yerawada Central Prison, the Yerawada women8217;s jail, the Yerawada open jail, the Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, Visapur jails and the open colony at Atpati 8212; indicates the rot begins right at the top.

Bhamre, also responsible for administration at the IGP8217;s office in Pune, is accused of 8216;8216;misusing manpower of prisoners for non-official purposes like constructing a landscaped garden at his residence and doing chores during the inaugural function of a shop opened in his wife8217;s name8217;8217; and transferring stocks of Yerawada jail-manufactured articles to Aurangabad jail. Incidentally, this is the second time he has been disgraced. The first time around, two years ago, he was reinstated after the Anti-Corruption Bureau accused of him of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

In the recent past, three other officers 8212; deputy inspectors-general of prisons D N Dawane, D J Chaudhari and B S Tikare 8212; have been suspended for administrative and financial irregularities. A far cry, indeed, from the reformist spirit that swept the state prisons since the 1950s till as recently as the 8217;80s.

J Dey in Mumbai and
Prasannakumar Keskar in Pune