महाराष्ट्रातील कारागृहांचा इतिहास

• The ‘Prison System’ Formulated in India in the pre -independence period was a corollary of the British Judicial System. In the year 1860, a simple code of rules was framed for the first time for the governance of jails, which was followed by the ‘‘Goal Rules of 1866’’. The jail conference of 1892 made some recommendations for improving the Jail Administration in the country. The Prisons Act (IX of 1894) was passed as a result of the recommendations made by this conference. This Act introduced some radical changes in Jail Administration, radical with reference to the conditions then obtaining (obtainable in Jails and the methods of dealing with the criminals in those days in the Jails in India).
The Prisoners Act was passed in the year 1900 to supplement the provisions of the prisons Act. These Acts are even now at the core of the Prison Administration in the country.

• ‘Prisons’ were on the central list till the promulgation of the Government of India Act of 1935, under which provincial autonomy was granted. Consequently, the provincial Governments (now State Governments) were empowered to make all the rules under the Act, which powers were being exercised till then by the Governor General in Council. Necessary changes in the Act more particularly in section 59 were made and section 60 of the Act deleted vide Government of India’s (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Order of 1937. Status quo was maintained in this regard after ‘‘Independence’’ and the subject of ‘prisons’ was included in the State List (vide Sr.No.4 under List II State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India).

• The ‘prison system’ in India was formulated as stated above, as a corollary of the British Judicial system and its main function was initially custodial. Gradually imprisonment itself was being regarded as a punishment; with the result the function of the ‘prison System’ was conceived to be ‘punitive’ and not merely ‘custodial’. However the system has undergone several changes as a result of various committees and commissions appointed by the Government of India from time to time to suggest ways and means to improve the conditions in jails and the Jail Administration in the country in order to keep pace with the advance made in other countries in regard to dealing with Crime and Criminals. The reports of these committees and the action taken thereon can be summarized in brief as under:

• The committee appointment in 1836-38 of which Lord Macaulay was a member, considered the general sanitary conditions of the Prisons, food, clothing etc.,

• The second committee was appointed in 1864 due partly to the continued high death rate in the prisons and partly to other allied considerations.

• The third conference of officials mainly engaged in jail work, was held in Calcutta in January 1877 and it discussed almost all questions bearing on prison Administrations,

• The committee of 1888-89 examined the whole field of internal Administration.

• Consequent on the appointment of the last three committees, buildings were gradually provided for proper accommodation of prisoners; dietaries were laid down; systems of jail labour were elaborated; the remission system was developed; insanitary conditions were corrected and death rates reduced in the jails; but the science of prison Administration had made great advance in Western Countries, and to keep pace with them the India jails committee of 1919-20 was appointed by the Government of India.

• The publication of its reports gave fillip to panel reforms and resulted in the enactment of Brutal Acts; Children Acts and Probation of Offenders Acts in Various States and also Acts providing for provisional release of prisoners.

• Soon after the popular Ministry assumed power in the erstwhile State of Bombay for the first in 1936-37, it took up the question of the jail reforms; but this work had to be abandoned as a result of their resignation in 1939. Some reforms ( like appointment of members of Stats Legislatures on the Visitors Boards; supply of newspapers to prisoners at Government cost; installation of radios at Central Prisons; installation of power driven flour mills in prison and abolition of manual work of grinding etc.) were introduced mainly on account of the efforts of the popular Ministry, before the appointment of the Bombay Jail Reforms Committee in the year 1946. The Bombay Jail Reforms Committee published its report in the year 1948 and made several recommendations to further improve the conditions in the prison and also of the prisoners confined therein. Most of the recommendations were accepted by the Government. These Jail reforms were based on the idea that as Mahatma Gandhi said :

• “Crime is but a sign of a diseased mind and that imprisonment, should aim primarily at treating a prisoner’s diseased mind and making him fit to go into society after release to lead an honest life’’. The Jail reforms recommended by the Bombay Jail Reforms Committee of 1946 thus mainly aim at doing everything that will help to keep alive optimism in the minds of prisoners so that they should be good citizens after release from the prison, this committee felt that the following should be the minimum features of a good penal system.

• The Eighth All India Conference of Inspector General of Prison, which was held in Bombay in the year 1952, recommended that a committee consisting of the Inspector General of Prisons, Bombay State and two Superintendents should draft a skeleton jail manual for being circulated to the Inspector Generals of Prisons of all the States for their opinion and suggestion. Accordingly, the views and suggestion of the State Government were obtained by the Government of India. In 1957, the All India jail Manual committee was appointed by the Government of India. This committee prepared a Model prison Manual and also published its report in the year 1959. This committee recommended changes in Indian Penal Code, including abolition of distinction between simple and rigorous punishment.

It also recommended that the Prisons Act, Prisoners and other Acts relating to prisons and prisoners should be revised and incorporated into the one comprehensive Act. It also recommended separate institutions for under trials and much greater attention to aftercare work. Stress was laid on preventive measures on juvenile delinquency and adolescent crime, organization of attendance centre and Borstal school, etc It was suggested that a model bill in respect of adolescent offenders should be prepared by the Government of India. Use of probation on a more extensive basis was also recommended and the undesirability of keeping adolescent offenders and juvenile delinquent children in prisons was stressed.
 

There is a prison colony at Atpadi in sangli District, where huts have been constructed in a farm without any enclosure or fencing. Prisoners, who have shown good progress in the open prison and who can be trusted, in condition of more freedom, are conditionally released on parole and sent to this colony which is called ‘Swatantrapur colony for temporarily released prisoners.

• (i) Head Quarters (a) The Inspector General of prisons is appointed under section 5 (1) of prisons Act, IX of 1894.He exercises, subject to the orders of the State Government, General control and superintendence over all prisons and sub-jails in the State.

• WORK.- Useful and meaningful work has been treated as the central and focal point, around which all institutional activities and training programme, are developed. The old concept of making work in prisons, as punitive and afflictive as possible, has been discarded. Work in prisons has now become a useful and meaningful activity.

• ON THE JOB TRAINING.- with a view to improving skills of prisoners, on the job training programmes have been organized various industries such as textile, carpentry, leather work, tailoring, agriculture act. A nucleus of inmate instructors has been set up. The technical staffs for each industry impart training to the inmate instructors as to how to give on the job training to prisoners working in the various production units.

• VOCATIONAL TRAINING.- vocational training classes have been organised in various prisons in carpentry,textile,sheet metal and other trades.

• EDUCATION.- (i) it is recognized that through properly organised and diversified educational programmes, prisoners can be re-educated for a better and useful way of social living.

• HEALTH EDUCATION.- (i) in the compact community life of a prison, health education assumes a special significance. At various stags, prisoners are educated regarding the necessity of observance of personal cleanliness, institutional cleanliness, environmental sanitation, clean habits of living, personal health etc.

• SOCIAL EDUCATION.- social education is recognized as an important channel of the correctional process. Social education programmes are organised through lectures, exhibition of films on social problems and distribution of literature on social education topics.

• SOCIAL ADJUSMENT THROUGH RECREATIONAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES.- In the monotonous and humdrum routine of and institution (like the prison), recreational and cultural activities (such as films, drama, folk dances, bhajans powadas, radio programmes of various types, reading of books, news papers and magazines act.) have a significant role to play and as such they are organised in prisons. Likewise, the republic day, Independence Day, Mahatma Gandhi jayanti are some of the festivals which are celebrated in prisons. Second October is observed as prisoners' welfare day in all the prisons every year.

• GUIDANCE AND COUNCELLING.- (a) In a correctional institution, proper attention has to be paid to the individual problems of the inmates. These problems can be multifarious such as, welfare of family members, contacts with family and community, economic problems, land litigation, legal help, institutional adjustment etc.

• PRISON PANCHAYAT.- with a view to training prisoners to live like in a co-operative, democratic and disciplined manner to inculcate a sense of responsibility and self reliance amongst them, panchayats of convicted prisoners have been set-up central prisons and district prisons,

• PRISONERS WELFARE FUND.- This fund has been organized at all central and district prisons with a view to extending necessary help to the needy prisoners. Prisoners are allowed to contribute to this fund on voluntary basis. It has been decided that from 1974-75, the amount representing net profits of the prison canteens should be contributed to the prisoners Welfare Fund through Government account.

• CANTEEN.- In addition to the canteens, which were established in the year 1949 at central prisons and class I district prisons, departmental canteens have also been introduced in the year 1969 in district prisons, class II and class III.

• PRISON INDUSTRIES.- The industries as shown in annexure have been organised which are in fact production-cum-training units as prisoners gain practical knowledge of the working of the industries in which they work. The working knowledge of different trades so gained by prisoners helps them to earn their livelihood on release from prison. Articles manufactured in the prison industries are supplied to other Government department, semi-Government bodies and are also sold to public.

• PRISON AGRICULTURE.- Greater attention is being paid to the reorganization and development of prison farms so as to achieve self sufficiency in regard to the requirements of vegetables and food grains.

• ADVISORY BOARDS AND SPECIAL ADVISORY BOARD:- Advisory Boards and Special Advisory Board constituted at Central and other prisons periodically review cases of certain categories of prisoners inter alia taking into consideration their criminal behavior, conduct and response to treatment and training in prisons and make recommendations to Government in suitable cases for premature release of the prisoners. Government decided to appoint a social scientist and a social worker on each of these boards so that the cases of the prisoners can be reviewed systematically.

• AFTERCARE OF PRISONERS.- (i) Aftercare of prisoners is viewed in an integrated manner, commencing from the prisoners admission to the prison and extending during his stay in the institution and finally after his release.

• The Prison Act IX of 1894 and the Prisoners Act III of 1900 are the Government of India Acts. But, the power of making rules under these Acts was delegated to the State Government after the subject was delegated from the “Union List” to the “State List” by the Government of India Act of 1935. The erstwhile States of Bombay and Madhay Pradesh had amended certain provision of these Acts under the said rule making powers in the application of these Acts to the respective States of Bombay and Madhya Pradesh. The erstwhile State of Hyderabad framed their own Acts.

• The provisions of the Model Prison Manual and the various recommendations of the All India Jail Manual Committee were taken into account by the Government of Maharashtra at the time of drafting the unified Prison Rules. Most of the recommendations of the All India Jail Manual Committee have been accepted and also implemented in the Maharashtra Prisons. In fact Maharashtra State is the only State, where the provisions of the Model Prison Manual and the recommendations of the All India Jail Manual Committee have been mostly implemented. Through the implementation of the recommendations of this committee, a new humanism was developed in all the prisons in the State. While the process of humanization of prisons was going apace, steps were also taken alongside to develop various phases of discipline, care, welfare, education, training and treatment of the offenders. The present ‘Correctional Policy’ in general and the ‘Prison System’ in particular has thus evolved as a result of the implementation of various recommendations of the Bombay Jail Reforms Committee of 1946 and of the All India Jail Manual Committee of 1957.

मजकूर विभागाच्या मान्यतेअधीन