Endeavour for prison reforms is to maintain a balance between custody and correctional measures for the prisoners and both are allowed to coexist. Prisons have become overcrowded and internal problems very often arise. It is important to keep control and stability inside. There are many security measures that can be put into place, but it is difficult to say whether it is the physical design / structure of the prison or the skilled jail officer that makes the difference, so far as prison safety is concerned. Undoubtedly both play a major role in keeping things orderly inside and outside the perimeter walls.
An important question is how each part of security helps maintain cohesiveness. What can be done in cases where there is disorder, indiscipline and chaos in jailIJ The influx of several special categories of security-risk offenders poses challenges to the prison administration. Due to constraint of resources of money, materials and, particularly the manpower suitably equipped and trained to deal with such security hazards in certain prisons, the issue very often comes to surface. In view of the increased concern for prison security, there is a paradigm shift in the ideology of prison management. The central issue now is custodial regimen in prisons. The current perspectives on prison reforms and the need for development of correctional ethos in prisons although require equal attention due to changes in the prisoner’s profile, for the presence of hardcore criminals, it requires a different type of handling, treatment and a strict security based penal regimen.
The fundamental responsibility of prison management is to secure custody and control of prisoners which is a universally-accepted phenomenon. It is doubtful that any correctional programme which ignores this reality will endure long. Actually, the services and facilities for reformation, treatment and training of prisoners can operate effectively only in a climate where control and vigil is constantly monitored. Therefore, the prison administration makes every effort to ensure ‘discipline’, ‘control’ and for ‘safe-custody’ of prisoners. The whole idea is to ensure that prisoners do not escape and they do not create disturbance to disrupt the smooth functioning of prison regimes or threaten life or property in the prison. To achieve the goal, the prison officer very often resorts to repressive measures for ‘maintenance of discipline’ so as to prevent conflicts, riots, escapes and jailbreaks. All disciplinary rules in the Jail Manual and Prison Act-1894 are virtually geared for ensuring ‘peace’ and ‘order’ inside the prison.
The truth is that objectives of treatment, training, reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners hardly convince the majority of prison administrators as an attainable goal under the present conditions and day-to-day constraints. On the other hand, the community demands protection and safety of prisoners and observance of human rights. The prison officer demands intensified measures of custody and discipline leading to further pleas for great security to prevent escape, rioting or disobeying of regulations. The prison officer wants special provisions other than mere segregation of recalcitrant prisoners, as most of the time they create serious behaviour problems and pose an immediate danger to other inmates. Therefore, the presence of such offenders demands construction of well-guarded special units. That apart, greater surveillance and perimeter security is also necessary. Notwithstanding the strong defence for correctional philosophy, i.e., treatment, training, reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders in the mainstream of social life, the truth is that ‘custody’ has become the prime consideration in the prison management not only in India but all over the world. However, endeavour for prison reforms is to maintain a balance between custody and correction and both are allowed to coexist.
In recent years, the character of the crime problem and the profile of the prison population have changed dramatically. We now have criminals who are more intelligent, clever and cunning. We have criminals who are rich, resourceful and highly politically connected. We have criminals who are unrepentant, dangerous and destructive. We have terrorists, professional killers, organised gangsters, mafia and brutal bandits, all confined in our central and district jails. The problem is their number is increasing and they are threatening the orderly life in prison making it unsafe for other inmates. The presence of such high profile prisoners including hardcore terrorists and gangsters has become a significant feature in prison life of India. The phenomenal change in the crime profile of the prison population is also evident in many other countries, especially the US and the UK, where a significant paradigm shift in the custody-correction balance is taking place.
Prisoners today are subject to security measures unknown or scarcely developed half a century ago. Prison perimeters are made virtually impenetrable by multiple high-tech barriers, landings and stairwells draped with wire-mesh, CCTV, watchtower, electronic locking systems, intensive staff surveillance, strip searches and random compulsory drug and other contraband testing.
The Kapoor Committee appointed by the Government of India in 1987 had recommended for an elaborate prison security system, electronic alarm system, close circuit TV, walkie-talkie, metal detectors, intercom, x-ray checking equipment and appointment of whole-time security officers. The committee also pointed out for fortification of the existing prison, security management in view of the ominously increasing incidents of indiscipline, increasing number of prisoners’ threat to the custodial staff trying to enforce rules and regulations and for the growing increase in the number of recalcitrant prisoners, some of them being in the category of ‘dreaded’ and ‘dangerous’ prisoners. In a nutshell, the committee presented a grim picture of security system and, accordingly, endorsed such security arrangements as they exist in the maximum-security prisons in the United States. The committee further observed, “Security and discipline being fundamental to any prison system are organically linked with all aspects of prison work. They are essential not only for efficient operation of prison administration but also for pursuing correctional and reformative programmes.”
With the advent of “privileged prisoners”, persons of political parties or having close connections and patronage of unscrupulous politicians with criminal records, our prisons have started facing varied problems of indiscipline. These politicised prisoners defy the authority of prison officials and subvert discipline of the prison regimen; as a result of which the prison officer’s ability to enforce regulations has diminished considerably.
So, strong security measures would serve the idea of deterrence, strict discipline and punishment for deviants, all of which together would enhance prison administrative efficiency. The other measures are: mail should be censored, visiting to be made limited and closely supervised and privacy should be virtually nonexistent. Prison staff should be prohibited from fraternising with prisoners and must deal with them in an authoritative and impersonal manner. Prisons must be places of extreme regimentation, as places designed for punishment awarded by courts. Finally, it is stressed that the building, policies, rules, regulations and control procedures, all should be designed to maximise the prison-keeper’s absolute control over the prisoners. Correctional treatment of offender for his ultimate rehabilitation and reintegration in the social mainstream should work uppermost in the mind of prison officers in the era of human rights consciousness and prison justice based on the Supreme Court judgement in the famous Rama Murthy case and the observations of the National Human Rights Commission.
(The writer is former special judge CBI, Bhubaneswar and Professor of law, lal Bahadur Shashtri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. He is also legal Consultant, Directorate of Prisons & Correctional Services, Odisha)