38- PRISON ADMINISTRATION

The prisons are established with a view to punish the convicts as well as to reform them. In our country, the administration of prison is such that convicts do not come out reformed but as hardened criminals. It is, therefore, essential that the administration of prisons be reformed extensively so convicts come out of prisons reformed and not as hardened criminals. It is, therefore, necessary that in prisons there should be facilities for educating the convicts.

• The under-trial prisoners should not be subjected to rigorous labour in confinement.
  

• The convicts should have adequate facilities for medical treatment.
  

• The prisoners should be provided with an adequate diet in accordance with the requirement for good health.
  

• The inmates should have facilities for exercise and study.
  

• Every prisoner should be taught a skill so that when he comes out of the prison he could make an honest living.
  

• In prisons, narcotics are freely available and used. In some cases more narcotics are available in prisons than outside. A system of administration should be evolved that narcotics cannot reach the inmates.
  

• Prisoners do not bring with them items of daily use nor do the prison authorities provide them. The prisoners, therefore, adopt unlawful methods to acquire those items. It is, therefore, necessary that the prison authorities provide the items of daily use to the prisoners.
  

• The hardened criminals and accidental or occasional criminals should be kept separately in prisons.
  

• There should be an improved procedure for the meeting of family members and relatives of the prisoners.
  

• Due to the shortage of vehicles in the prison administration prisoners are not brought to the courts for hearing and therefore the cases are prolonged unnecessarily. It is, therefore, essential that the vehicles and personnel should be made available in sufficient number for the prisoners to be brought to the courts for hearing.
  

• The practice of inhuman brutal torture upon prisoners should be stopped forthwith.
  

• The convicted prisoners are not compensated for their hard labour. It is right and proper that upon completion of their sentence they are paid adequately for their work, so on leaving the prison they could start leading a decent life.
  

• In jails there is no one to care for female prisoners and the Authorities treat them extremely inhumanely. It is, therefore, essential that women prisoners be given due justice and atrocities upon them to be stopped forthwith.
  

• In order to end brutalities and atrocities in prisons, a team comprising of High Court Judges should be appointed who would carry out surprise visits to the prisons. Respective Chief Justices should make the appointment of these judges so that the malpractice can be stopped.

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