ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

PrisonersSubscribe to Prisoners

Narratives of the Invisibilised and Unmitigated Women Prisoners of India

Women, Incarcerated: Narratives from India edited by Mahuya Bandyopadhyay and Rimple Mehta, Orient BlackSwan, 2022; pp xi + 356, `1,210 (paperback).

Suffrage in Shackles

After 72 years of adopting universal adult franchise in its Constitution, India has remained unperturbed to the cause of voting rights of prisoners. The latest judicial decisions regarding the issue also justify disenfranchisement using the same line of thought as was used in the colonial times. India has progressed enough to now look for alternatives to the present setting so as to enable enfranchisement for Indian prisoners both in principle and practice.

Understanding Open Prisons in India

The reformative theory of justice postulates removing the dangerous degeneracy in a criminal and afford them a chance to make a fresh start and lead an honest life. This ensures fundamental human dignity, a most essential constitutional and human right. The current penitentiary structure’s primary focus on punitive and retributive forms of punishment is ill-suited in safeguarding human dignity. The present jail administration in India is archaic, opaque and rife with abuses at systemic level. There is an urgent imperative for various prison reforms. An understanding is sought to be developed of the open prisons as a peno-correctional institution and their superiority over the more conventional forms of incarceration in ensuring both, the societal objective of penal sentencing and the human rights objective of successful reintegration of the prisoners upon their release.

Prisoners’ Right to Write: Why SC Rulings Should be Taken Seriously by Prison Authorities

This article discusses the legal jurisprudence and policies affecting a prisoner’s right to express and write, also highlighting how such a right in practice is being infringed as a casual practice of prison administration. The article stresses why writing should be a duly recognised right of the prisoner. Further, the article shows how the writings of prisoners have contributed to reforms in prison conditions in India.

Vocational Training in Indian Prisons

The vocational training programmes offered in Indian prisons with the intention of rehabilitating offenders are not only supposed to train prisoners in vocational knowledge and skills, but also strengthen their will to work, sense of self-help, and spirit of cooperation by having them work with others in a regulated environment. However, with the criminal justice system laying undue emphasis on the incarceration of criminals alone, the goals of reformation and rehabilitation of lawbreakers get undermined.

Undertrial Prisoners in India

Across the world, prisons are increasingly used as instruments of social control. With its huge undertrial population in jails, India is headed in the same direction. Measures like restricting visitors' access to prisons only aggravate the situation.

National Security: Prisoners of Rhetoric

A close look at the Indian government's defence budget and related reports on military matters shows that while external security preparedness has slipped over the years, the Indian army has become one of the busiest peace time forces fighting its own people. This also impacts on the morale of the armed forces and creates opportunity for the emergence of particularist biases and prejudices within the forces. The changing geopolitical context of India's neighbourhood determines security perceptions and is a factor in deciding defence spending.

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