About the Author
The author of this article is Rejila R.L a Second-Year student at Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.
Introduction
Community participation is defined as a process by which a community mobilizes its resources, initiates and takes responsibility for its development activities, and shares in decision-making for and implementation of all other development programs for the overall improvement of its health status. These are a range of processes by which local communities clarify and express their own needs and play a role in taking collective action to solve them. The application of this concept in prisons through probation is much more extensive. The aim of probation is the ultimate re-establishment of offenders in the community. States face many challenges to prevent crime and victimization or develop safe societies without the participation and involvement of citizens. Therefore, community participation in prisons is a partnership between civil society, prison officials, and prisoners who are undergoing punishment. The main objective is to assess, identify, and implement the areas and possibilities of reform in prisons. The atrocious conditions of most prisons, like the absence of rehabilitation, family/community reintegration programs, and a lack of opportunity in both vocational and occupational training, don’t create a habitat for improving themselves and adapting to society after their release into normal life. Furthermore, lack of funds and the right attitude to deal with socially handicapped inmates – all these imperfections need to be corrected by a joint effort of the government, people, and prisoners.
Partnership Between Community and Prisoners
For the community, prisoners operate as black boxes because they are neither transparent nor common in trying to unfurl the conundrum. But prisoners cannot cease to live in society after their sentence. The closed nature of prisons will form a dark spot between the people, and then their hearts will remain closed towards reformed ex-prisoners. Another impact is that prisons become breeding grounds for human rights violations. Being an Indian citizen, prisoners also have rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution. The only interface that the community has with prisons is through the very few NGOs that have initiated reform work in prisons either regularly or on an event-to-event basis. The All-India Committee for Jail Reforms recommended that public participation in the prevention of crime and treatment of offenders be a part of our national policy on prisons. The process of cooperation and coordination between prison officials and community groups will help to create a bridge with prisoners, thereby bringing them into “close contact and initiating meaningful dialogue about mutual problems and concerns”.
In March 2022, about 400 to 500 undergraduate students who are part of the law clinic of the University of Abuja in Nigeria visited the Suleja prisons as a part of the reforming of pre-trial detention in Nigeria. They were arrested by the police on two different occasions and charged with criminal trespassing, mischief, and theft. One of them signed a confession at the police station, even though he couldn’t read or understand the content of the document. They presented the case to their pro bono lawyer at a case conference. Subsequently, the lawyer successfully applied for bail. These two were part of the estimated 100 inmates who have been released, thanks to the students since the inception of a law clinic in 2008. Beyond gaining freedom for inmates, the club has executed impactful projects that include community-based intervention to protect citizens and educate them on their civil, political, and human rights. Furthermore, the club has projects focusing on rape cases, migration, and human trafficking and the need to enlighten the victims on the need to come forward to speak against them and report to the authorities. The challenges faced by the club range from delays in verifying the cases to delays in the Nigerian judicial system, and a lack of funding to pay fines for inmates.
Prison should be treated as an extension of society. A person who is a prisoner is the most apt to correct the enigma of prisons. It can be achieved with the help of the prison administration. Prison administration, in collaboration with NGOs, can educate the public about the actions being taken to reform prisons and prisoners. In this way, prisoners can communicate with the public through public-spirited persons in the community about their rights and need for care. These levels of communication make civil society aware of the internal workings of prisons without disturbing the closed nature of prisons.
Rehabilitation of Prisoners
Rehabilitation focuses on helping the offender sort out their wrongs and prepare them to re-enter society as a new individual. Rehabilitation programs should be focused on the cause that leads the offender to commit a crime. Causes may include poverty, the use of drugs and alcohol, lack of education, and so on. These were the areas that needed to be corrected through rehabilitation. Rehabilitation includes two large national goals: passive and active. The objective of the passive goals is facilitation, and the goals could be empowerment, skill development, entrepreneurship development training, etc. On the other hand, active goals could be sustained by intervention by creating a scalable sustainable business that not only provides opportunities to inmates through training and job learning but also creates economic returns to make significant savings in the overall management of jails and prisoners. The objective of prison labour must be to train prisoners in the habits of industry and in a trade that will command a living wage after release. In the beginning, it was treated as a tool for punishment in Indian jails. According to Macaulay in his minutes of 1835, “prison labour in terms of the acquisition of gainful skills by the prisoner was to prove either successful or unsuccessful. If successful, the essential element of the deterrent aspect of punishment would be neutralized. If the experiment proved unsuccessful, all the efforts and costs would come to naught”.
Keeping the prisoners engaged in productive work would be helpful for their physical and mental fitness. In addition, it also gives the self-confidence to return to society. The XII International Penal and Penitentiary Conference held at the Hague in 1950 suggested that work is the best alternative to improving the potential of prisoners. The greatest output from putting prison inmates to work is that the wages earned by them can be used for the welfare of their families and dependents. In short, the work is beneficial to inmates and, at the same time, remunerative to the state. The working conditions of prisoners should satisfy all the values of human dignity. The Prisons Act of 1894 focuses on punishing criminals by keeping them in custody, with no provisions for reform or rehabilitation of prisoners. Later on, various committees, such as the Mulla Committee, the Justice Amitava Roy Committee, and the Krishna Iyer Committee, took new steps to change the quality of such socially disabled persons. Creating a time-bound strategy for enhancing living conditions with the approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs was one of the top reformative strategies among them. According to the Model Prison Manual 2016, the approval of NGOs coming forward to participate in rehabilitation programs should be extensively encouraged. Through these NGOs, the public should be educated about the need for rehabilitation for prisoners. Furthermore, looking into UNODC prison reforms, the social reintegration policy is a more striking one. This means that noncustodial sanctions instead of isolation from society and purposeful activities and programs in prisons can all be considered elements of a comprehensive “social reintegration” policy.
Conclusion
In the 21st century, the scope of reformative theory is very vast. Until the mid-19th century, harsh punishments were given for small offenses. But nowadays, we can observe a gradual change in the view of civil society about crime and criminals. A bridge between the community and prisoners can concoct more changes in the present system. As per the report of the Justice Amitava Roy Committee, the prison administration has many limitations. But in many ways, the State is trying to uphold the rights of prisoners. Prisoners cannot cease to be human beings, and their role in society is very important. Prisoners, especially reformed ex-prisoners, can make society aware of their rights and the importance of probation. The concept of community participation in prisons is very important because these prisoners, after serving their sentences, have to re-enter the same community. Rehabilitation is another important means of probation. The reformed nature of prison labour helps prisoners earn money for their families and dependents. That is, the work is beneficial to inmates and remunerative to the state. The prison system should be made more transparent to the community without disturbing security. Non-official prison visitor system must become operational on a regular and stable basis. This would give substance to the principle of transparency and accountability as adopted by the government. Under this scheme appointed members of the community have free access to conduct unannounced visits, through which random checks can be made by independent laypersons.
