Where prisoners will be corrected !

By Prabhjot Singh

The Institute of Correctional Administration, which has been operating from temporary premises since 1989, is all set to move to its own building in the last week of this month. Based on the recommendation of the All-India Committee on Jail Reforms, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, while considering a scheme on modernisation of prison administration, decided on August 2,1988 to set up regional training centres for prison personnel, preferably in union territories.

As a sequel to this decision, the institute was set up in Chandigarh for developing it as a regional centre on lines of the Vellore institute which caters to the training needs of correctional officers in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In the absence of its own building, it started conducting short-term courses at the UTGuest House from July,1991, with a guest faculty. It has so far organised 34 courses on correction, apart from holding a series of symposia, seminars and panel discussions on jail reforms.

Judges of the High Court, professors of psychology, sociology, criminology, laws, psychiatry and jail administration have been participating in the activities of the institute.

At one stage, the Union Ministry of Home affairs was contemplating the use of one full floor of Hotel Shivalikview for running this institute. The proposal, however, was shelved in favour of the UTGuest House. But now the institute will be formally moving to its own building at the Sector 26 Central Polytechnic Complex where the Administration has also allotted to it four acres of vacant land. The Engineering Department of the Administration has been entrusted with the construction work.

Mrs Anuradha Gupta, ex-offico Director of the institute, confirms that the institute will occupy its new premises by the end of January. Initially, efforts were being made to request the Chief Justice of India to come and inaugurate the new complex. No final decision about the chief guest and exact date has been taken so far.

The Chandigarh institute lays importance on education, especially on the vocational component for correction. While education enhances the self-concept of a prisoner, the vocational component paves the way for correction by making him self reliant and socially acceptable.

The prison administration in Rajasthan is doing a commendable job as industrial training institutes have been set up in jail premises, besides computer training courses and advance courses in tailoring.

During the courses for trainers, concept and techniques of counselling are explained at length and participants are trained in the use of various aids for correction, identifying listening as a crucial element of counselling. Workshops are conducted so as to sensitize the participants to skills of listening .

Besides, emphasis is also laid on stress management. Training is also imparted to correctors in stress relieving techniques.

Another area which has been getting increased attention in prison management has been about the role and participation of private industrial entrepreneurs. A beginning has been made in Himachal Pradesh where kerosene heaters on Japanese models are being manufactured and assembled by an NRI industrialist. The NRI plans to employ unskilled prisoners in his enterprise, which is expected to go a long way in rehabilitation of the prisoners after their release with the money they will earn in the prison. Similarly, in Punjab private entrepreneurs have been involved in sports goods manufacturing in the jail premises at Jalandhar.

These areas apart, training courses also include workshops on the techniques of behaviour, modification, including life planning, mental healing and self-analysis. Certain problems experienced by trainers of correctional administration are also discussed at symposia, seminars and workshops. For example, third degree methods used by police to extract confessions rather than using scientific methods was one such issue discussed at the institute.

The stress at the institute, says Mrs Anuradha Gupta, is on a ritualistic, scientific and holistic approach. The ritualistic measures signify strict enforcement of discipline within the prison complemented by scientific classification of prisoners. The holistic intervention implies comprehensive understanding of the rootcause of criminality and corresponding mode of treatment leading to provision of after- care for rehabilitation. The courses also emphasise the need for purity of consciousness leading to consistency between thought, words and action.

The major achievements of the institute include introduction of a scheme where under 50 per cent of the wages earned by inmates in jail are deposited in their personal accounts and the amount is released to them in a lumpsum on their release from the prison. This step helps in rehabilitation of prisoners.

Punjab has been the first state in the country to revise its jail manual. Other states, including Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, have also adopted the revised the Punjab Jail Manual. Haryana is also in the process of adopting this revised manual which incorporates the national policy on prisons.

Once the institute moves to its new permanent home, it will gradually have a regular and permanent faculty.