A healthy society is indispensable for reforming prisons

More than a century ago, in order to protect the civilized societies of the world from social and political pollution, the law of imprisonment which was established under the measures of suppression of anti-social elements, is to keep those involved in crimes in custody and strict management in prisons. Focused on enforcement of seizure. This law is practiced even today in different regions of the world including the subcontinent. Developed countries in the last few decades have taken a new approach to dealing with criminals incarcerated in jails and prisons globally. This new approach was not to allow prisons to be merely a place of penitentiary and penitentiary, but to transform them into reformatories to reform and rehabilitate offenders to the point of delinquency. To be part of the society.

More than one developed country of the world responded to this innovative effort and started using it to expand the scope of a healthy society. After witnessing the success of these countries, some developing countries also got the courage to think in this direction and become practical. The idea of moving the spirit of syncretism in this direction with the speed of time also arose in India where the Jails Act of 1894 dates back to the pre-independence era and is about 130 years old. In order to protect the civilized societies from social and political contamination, under the measures of anti-social Anasarki Sir Kobi, this Act also focuses on keeping criminals in custody and enforcing strict discipline in prisons. It has no discipline to reform the prisoners and reintegrate them into a healthy society. In other words, even today in most of the prisons of the world, the prisoners are simply retaliated against, there is no thought of reforming them into law-abiding citizens and making them part of the society again.

This inconsistency of the Jail Act with the speed of time here was apparently felt long ago. Many attempts were made in this direction in the secular and progressive era, which fell into the hands of vested interests. In the previous century, when progressive thinking used to be a prominent part of Bollywood films, a great unique film graced the screens, its name was "Enemy". The then superstar Rajesh Khanna and the queen of emotional acting Meena Kumari in this film really shocked the film fraternity. Just like the movie "Change the Society" based on "Act and Reaction" used to resort to violence against the wealthy, on the contrary, the film "Dushman" showed the small and large. A truly welcome change was beginning to be felt in the social attitude towards incidental crime. Worse, the sectarians who make negative use of religions, whose ever-increasing misdemeanors have made the society in the dear motherland gradually transcend color and race, caste and religion. In this way, where the idea of making prisons a place of reformation instead of a prison was still a paper journey, the whole country was turned into a penitentiary of hatred and revenge.

Social, political, cultural and economic relationships of all kinds have been so polluted in the past few decades that people have forgotten how to have normal and fun conversations, from newspapers to social media. Every post on electronic social media and editorial page of newspapers is full of bad and good things. This analysis is not based on assertion but scientific observation. The values which have always been lacking in the society, people have been entertained by their constant mentions. We are part of this scenario. Look who is entertaining with editorial posts, critical essays, exaggerating anecdotes and stories from the past. None of them are willing to accept responsibility for the ills that are common in society and that are causing people to suffer from frequent mental and intermittent physical disturbances. All are limiting their responsibilities to blaming each other. In other words, we have turned the entire society in front of us into a place of revenge and are busy digging the graves of the past to meet the desired needs.

However, even in the midst of a famine of good and welcome changes, sometimes a piece of news comes out which, after reading it, rekindles the crumbling hope of living. One such news was seen in the last few days, in which the measures to convert the Indian prisons into correctional facilities and to make the prisoners fit for the society once again by providing equal opportunities without any gender discrimination were not only talked about, but practical. The road to the demonstration has been paved. Over the past few years, the Home Ministry has taken a step towards framing a new Prison Act, realizing several loopholes in the existing Prisons Act, under which the prison administration in states and Union Territories operates, which few states have adopted. The experimental process has also started.

According to the official report, it was decided to revise the outdated colonial-era Prison Act in accordance with modern requirements and reformist ideology. The Ministry of Home Affairs has assigned the task of revising the Prisons Act, 1894 to the Bureau of Police Research and Development. The Bureau, after extensive consultation with state prison authorities, social scientists and correctional experts, etc., has prepared a draft on Technology in Jail Management with a view to providing overall guidance and bridging gaps in the existing Jail Act. Use of, provision of parole