Prostitution Should Be Legalised K.v.reddy President All India Prison Officers Association 09849904733 / 09440060055

K.V.Reddy President All India Prison Officers Association 09849904733 / 09440060055 Email:[email protected]

PROSTITUTION SHOULD BE LEGALISED From time immemorial, the profession of prostitution has been in existence and in the primitive days, remained with Devadasis (Temple dancers) who adopted discreet methods of hiring their bodies to some of the Rajahs and Maharajas or even off-went land lords as semipermanent ‘keeps’ on a mutually agreed remuneration with other perks for their living, upkeep and lavish life-style. Subsequently, the profession percolated to the adolescent unmarried girls seeking to saturate their sexual urge, which of course, is a biological necessity for every human being male or female. As on age-old profession, it needs to be thoroughly examined from all angles and steps taken to legalize it. The fundamental ‘right to live’ guaranteed by our constitution has also to be taken into reckoning which is a sacred preamble envies age by our founding fathers. People say that prostitution is a social problem. Prostitution actually helps maintain the family by acting as an outlet, or safety valve, for those males who want impersonal and transitory sex. It is an age-old profession and it cannot be destroyed. It is a widely but secretly accepted profession. It is a victimless crime. No one is getting injured. The man is gaining pleasure and the women is earning a living. Men turn to prostitutes for sexual satisfaction to find sexual variety, both in the sense of different types of women and unconventional sexual techniques. At no point of time, this professional of prostitution was treated as a problem to the guardians if law and order. As generations progressed, the drowing urge for situating sexual passion and lust took a drastic turn around among the youth adolescents. This was mainly due to the ‘Idiot Box’ (television) and movies of romantic dimensions depicting regularly the imperative need for indulgence in the act of sexual intercourse. This became a very piquant problem of supply and demand as all other needs of daily life. The environments, the quality of nutrition, the modern life style had all played a vital role in the fast developing nations and particularly the southern part of our country because the been hive for more sexual activity.

Prostitution is functional. monogamous boredom.

It

provides

an

outlet

for

Prostitution is existed everywhere, at every time, from the beginning of recorded history. It is being to be noted as ‘Necessary evil” in very society. Hence, laws were framed only to control the prostitution and not for outright eradication of prostitutes. It is a fact that, unmarried men of all ages are more likely than married men, to seek the services of prostitutes. A study revealed that most of the visitors are from middle-class or lower middle class families only. Statistics reveal that, the northern parts of India – Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and some of the North Eastern states have all earmarked licensed “Red Light” areas for such a profession in order that those who aspire to ease their sexual desire can choose to visit them and satisfy their inner urge, or course, on a mutually agreed fee for the pleasure they secure momentarily. Prostitution is like any other business. people making a living by it.

There are innumerable

Wherever restless men and money congregates, there are women seeking, to sell a moment of pleasure. Where there is easy money there are prostitutes. The value of religions, the feeling of motherhood for women and respect for opposite sex are fast diminishing in modern society and society must rehabilitate, re-establish these valves. The tension of sex deals young and old, spinsters and bachelor, rich and poor alike (unmarried women). Sexual urge cannot, therefore be curbed, by enforcement of law. The tension of sex deals with the young and old, the spinsters and bachelors, rich and poor inspective of caste, creed or religion and there is no demarcated barrier for carrying on this age-old profession. Hence, this act of prostitution between male and female has taken its roots in all classes of society due to various factors. Also, the abundant availability of pornographic literature has rapidly increased the hunger for sex in the modern society for both males and females. The growing incidents of prostitution in urban areas have been increasing according to the unwritten law or supply and demand. In order to meet this demand, clandestine organizations have mushroomed to lure young and eligible spinsters with a false promise of providing lucrative employment, alternately to land into the so called immoral profession of prostitution.

Without a demand there would be no pros. More men can be found the streets in search of sexual pleasure than women, who seek to sell their services. Some causes for women taking to this profession are:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Difficulty or finding employment. Excessive, laborers and it’ll paid work. Harsh treatment of girls at home. Promise and indecent made of living away the overcrowded. The aggregations of people together in large communities & factories, whereby the yond are into constant contact with demoralized companions. The example of luxury, silt indulgence and loose manners setup the rich class. Demoralizing literature and The arts of profligate (seek less) men and theirs agents. Alcohol (10) late marriages (12) Higher Educated for women. Young working women among from Men frequent pro. For the following reasons.

1.

Less effort is necessary to scare a sexual partner You can simply walk in & out

2. 3. 4.

Insufficient marital relations. End of responsibility on payment – pay & garget. Teenagers is experimental stage – They are very longer to know the secret. Sexually isolated persons – Like RICA Trainees. Leas expensive than non-prostitutes – No following, no film, No hotels. Due to physical deformity & can only get prostitutes to have relations with them. Married men with frigid wives. To satisfy desire for sexual deviations Refusal of married partner to engage in deviation Bad company Pimps & primarily because of poverty Due to Decay of traditional morality Due to greater freedom of young women Due to wider knowledge & Sales of contraceptives like pills, nirogh etc. Due to unhappy experiences of promiscuity (indiscrimination) pros. is a social problems. Why does a demand exist in the society for pros? Because, sexual design is part of the very nature of man.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

Pornographic literature has greatly increased the sex hunger in the modern youth of both sexes.

1. 2.

Do the pros like theirs professions? The answer is ‘NO’ Do the pros. Love any of theirs clients the answer is ‘Never’

Prostitutions in India During the Moghal Rule prostitution become more widely spread than in ancient India. The SITA/RITA Act, 1956 has failed to decrease the trafficking in women and girls or induction in the number of prostitutes. This profession, like any other, operates on a commercial basis, according to the law of demand and supply. Commercial pros. has increased to a great extent. Some College girls are adopting this to “earn for theirs education” some for fun some for romance and joy etc., which leads them in future, life towards prost. Due to the dowry system also, girls from middle class families are practicing this profession, some with the help of their parents some with the help of their husbands, in order to secure huge sums of money to keeping an appearance of affluence. To meet the increasing demand, some organizations are bring young girls, with a promise to get employment, a chance to act in pictures etc. some girls were first promised marriage by some crooks and later were dragged into this immoral profession. The history of prostitution shows that, it has outlined every social, economic, ethical & political system. It has had its vicissitudes, problems etc., but it has existed, proving how deeply it is rooted in human social life. There are many factors which guide the destiny of prostitutes mainly due to poverty, en-employment and other natural desires to which every human has succumbed from ages. Well-knit domestic families irrespective of their social and economic status have fallen a prey to this very stigmatic profession and women who offer their bodies to indiscriminate sexual orgy and that too on hire, is an act not due to spontaneity but owing to rigid compulsion of circumstance, be it economical, physiological, physical, psychological, or socially sex emotional. On the other hand, greater wealth and material security have tended to raise the working class women above the level at which they might have become prostitutes through destitutions (poverty). But on the other hand, their rising income has accomplished even outstripped by rising demands, and greater freedom has given to a large no. of women the opportunity of adding to theirs earning by casual and private prostitutions.

Generally, the poor and lower middle class ladies easily come into open, as they don’t have facilities to carry out the trade escheating. Ladies of hunger middle class, college girls, workingwomen, housewives and high class women are succeeding in practice in this trouble in secret. The upper class women in India, under the spell of western influence choose to exploit sex in order to lead luxurious life. Causes for enlisting in the profession of prostitution are numerous, but the salient few are social environment, stained relationships with their kith and kin, frustrations in cumbersome married life, over strict percentage with the grown-ups and many more “Variety is the spice of life, hence none can relish the same menu for breakfast, lunch or dinner everyday in as much as they do not attain pleasure or satisfy their sexual passion over the same act with the same lady all the time. Hence, the for getting into the trap of call girls and prostates. Wisdom should prevail on the powers that be for legalizing the profession, provided a separate zone or colony for these wage earners, issue them licenses for the profession subject to periodical medical check-up and allocating a monitor to supervise their routine. If need be, fixing rates decoding to their category, complexion and age barrier besides trying a tax in the form of luxury tax so that the rampant rape criminals are reduced to the minimal and the courts are freed from their monitory of sitting over such impregnable and malicious cases of rapists. No informal of law can eradicate this malaise from the society. Better late than never.

K.V.Reddy President All India Prison Officers Association 09849904733 / 09440060055 Email:[email protected]

DEATH SENTENCE Crime is eternal as eternal as society. Crime is a perennial and universal problem of all societies. The concept of crime is rooted in man’s rudimental attempts to distinguish between the right and the wrong. According to Frank Hunting’s “Social Disorganization” hypothesis the criminal is a normal human being, but is now living in a disorganized society, which tends to disorganize it’s individual efforts. He believed that

society is sick and the criminal learns his criminality through a process of unfortunate and natural happenings. Capital punishment is the most ancient and by its very nature the most cruel of all. It must have originated in the primitive society as reaction to murder and similar grave offences. Jesus Christ repudiated all sense of vengeance. He would have all sinners including criminals reformed rather than annihilated. Death sentence seams vindictive in modern society. The argument in favour of retaining this form of punishment are:A. It is the only way of eliminating the incorrigible enemies of society. In other modes of punishment the criminal comes back to society to resume his nefarious activities. Why should society support him with the constant menace of his release and subsequent depredations? This argument is, however, easily assailable. After all, how can society in the present conditions of its knowledge ascertain who is going to revert to crime and who is not? The murder by passion is likely to repeat his crime than the thief or burglar. As a matter of fact, except professional murderers, who are negligibly few, murderers, if spared the noose would really not commit similar crime again. B.

It deters as no other form of punishment does.

This argument looks formidable enough in view of the fact that life is considered to be the most precious and dearest possession. Life, is the birth right of all human beings. We cannot take whatever we cannot give. After all, we have not yet perfected our machinery of providing proper justice, so that, we cannot count upon court pronouncements as infallible. “To err is human & to Forgive is divine”. Jurisprudence also needs constant scrutiny and revision. Human life is the most precious gift of god almighty who is omnipresent and omnipotent as well (though atheists may differ). Even when suicidal attempt is punishable under law, no human howsoever high and mighty he or she may be, has not an iota of right to snatch away another human’s life, howsoever heinous and grave his or her crime may be, since unflinching evidence and factual establishment of the crime, proved beyond any reasonable doubt, will perennially remain beyond the law of jurisprudence since all these are again the mechanism perpetrated by the very same human beings. The exalted judiciary. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on assuming charge as the first Prime Minister of India, very vociferously declared, in his maiden Independence Day message to the nation, that hoarders and black-marketers would be hanged to death to the nearest lamp-post (through he did no mean it literally) and these professions are being carried on unabatedly till today

despite the strictest enforcement of law. If according to Nehru, his declaration was implemented in its true spirit, India’s population today would have been whittled down to less than half and there would have been no need for any family planning program, which has already cost the public exchequer rather too heavily. The extreme penalty of passing a death sentence is too primitive and atrociotely loathsome to think of, in as much as capital punishment is extremely primitive to the society in which we are living today. The World Human rights Day is being observed by all the countries around the globe and ‘Life’ and existence is the birth right of all human beings. Most of the countries have totally abolished death penalty considering it as barbarian and inhuman and yet their crime graph indicates that the crime rate has reduced to the barest minimum. Simple because you eliminate a person from this mundane world, it does not imply, that similar heinous crime warranting extreme punishment are reduced even marginally. The problem of extremists and anti-social elements shall remain on mother earth as long as the society as a whole is reformed both culturally and economically. Tight evidence manufactured by an over zealous party or agency may secure conviction of an innocent person in the present conditions. There are instances of innocent men being condemned, although few. To cite an instance, as reported recently, in the media, a police informer who had an enmity with a rag picker informed the Police that, he had seen with his own eyes of the cold blooded murder in the locality, by the rag picker. The Police arrested the rag picker who was sentenced for life imprisonment by the judiciary. After the lapse of 11 years, the Police informer committed suicide and in the suicide note left behind, he mentioned of the grave error of involving the rag picker falsely of murder charges (due to his personal enmity) and that he is innocent. A couple of NGO’s took up the matter with the judiciary on PIL petition and the rag picker is honorable acquitted and released from prison. What an illogical faux-paux is infened by erring judgments of such nature where proof or evidence is a distant ‘cry in wilderness’. Recently I heard of a case, which occurred in U.S.A. A young person had been sentenced for 6 years imprisonment for raping a girl. But 2 years, after getting married, the same girl, now a woman, decided to tell the truth to the world that she was not raped by the person, who is now undergoing sentence in that case. What, if it happens in the case of a person, who had been executed had capital punishment been given. Can we give rebirth or life? No. Then, such a punishment of ‘hanging till death’ needs to be summarily detested and considered barbaric. In other cases, however, there remains room for redressal and even compensating the sufferer, whereas in case of death nothing can be done to the actual man so condemned.

After a person is executed, there is no initiative on the part of any one to hunt for evidence, which might establish his posthumous innocence or the guilt of others. A tongue is eternally silenced. It could have itself given further clues to a crime. It is unworthy of civilized men to go by it any more. Undoubtedly, the person condemned can have no chance of reformation as he perishes for good. The criminals usually executed by death are not necessarily habitual criminals. Death prevents reformation altogether. The barbarity of capital punishment has a demoralizing effect upon society. It violates our humanitarian sentiments. Is it not absurd that the laws, which detect and punish homicide, should in order to prevent murder, publicly commit murder themselves? The law should not increase the ferocity of mankind by examples of barbarity. Death penalty is a relic of the old times when people thought in terms of elimination rather than reformation or prevention. Death penalty is the most cold blooded and deliberate form of murder. Social conditions have greatly changed, since, the time when this form of punishment was considered absolutely indispensable. Police protection has become much more efficient and investigation, both in method and thoroughness has advanced a great deal. Criminals are not pursued more relentlessly and probably more effectively than before. It is now possible to choose from a greater variety of penalties and apply the most suited to the individual concerned. So far, as protection from ravages of these criminals, if spared, goes, it is now within the bounds of possible attainment to segregate them so that they can’t do any more injury. At present, the death penalty is very uncertain, because, it is difficult to have Jurys return verdicts of guilty in cases, where, they know capital sentence will follow. It means that criminals could be more effectively dealt with under any other punishment than this. In inflicting this extreme penalty, society deprives innocent members of their main prop in many cases. This is undoubtedly a great problem in as much as the family of a man, either detained or executed does suffer terribly. In the case of death, however, a prop and support is permanently done away with. It may be disputed, although, it has been argued, that in all those countries, where the extreme penalty has been abolished a decrease in murders has been noticed. Possibly this result is due to other factors as well, such as growth of culture, a higher standard of life and better police organization, but it has certainly belied fears of those who had visualized an orgy of murders as the inevitable consequence of the abolition of the death penalty. A number of countries have abolished it and do not seem to have been any work off. It is now known that any country has had to

go back to the old system after having once abolished it. I have confidence in that other countries following these will also fare as well. Amnesty International, the best-known International Organization for human rights is working against the capital punishment. In its worldwide study it found that only the poor, minorities and ordinary criminals are getting the capital punishment. At present 67 countries have abolished capital punishment. In 1971 and 1977, the United Nations General Assembly has supported for the abolition of capital punishment. Whipping abolished in 1955. Transportation in 1955. Chekky and Gunny in 1953. Pillory and display of offender on donkey also. Penal servitude abolished in 1949. Then why not capital punishment? The sentence of death stands in the forefront in the category of punishment. The question, whether the state has the right to take away a man’s life, has always been agitated and its validity has often been questioned. No doubt, the Supreme Court has laid down that the death sentence is within the ambit of constitution, but it is an issue upon which the moralist and jurist and Human rights Activists are never likely to agree. Reformists have always been and are of the view that capital punishment is inhuman, obnoxious and dastardly. In, India, no doubt, the death sentence has not yet been abolished but the Legislature as well as the judiciary have shown its aversion towards the execution in no uncertain terms. After the amendment of Sec 367 Cr.P.C. 1898, and enactment of the new Criminal Procedure 1973, the court has to state the special reasons for awarding sentence of death, in case of offences, which are also punishable with lesser sentence of imprisonment. Sub Sec. 3 of Sec 3564 of Cr.P.C. 1973, provides under: “When the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or as an alternative, with the imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of 10 years, the judgment shall state special reasons for the sentence awarded. The above provision shows that the legislative emphasis has modified from the death sentence to that of life imprisonment. The death sentence in over whelming majority of cases, are reduced to life imprisonment either by S.C. on appeal or through the presidential pardon (clemency) (in both cases, mostly the effluent, influential, persons with political background only escape).

According to A.I.R. 1980 Mr. Justice Bhagwati observed that, Sec. 302 of IPC in so far as it provided for imposition of death penalty, as an alternative to life sentence, was violative of article 14 & 21 of the constitution and therefore ultra virus & void. Since the section did not provide any legislative guidelines as to when life was permitted to be extinguished by imposition of death sentence. He struck down Sec. 302 of IPC as un-constitutional and void. In 1974, Justice Krishna Iyer, in Supreme Court said that: We assume that a better world is one without legal knifing of life. Our developmental decade must turn benignant eye on lives right to life as the basic condition of human development and as a problem of 3rd world within every nation. Do remember that the blow of the Capital Sentence often falls on the socially, mentally and economically backward or the brave revolutionaries and desperate on the lowliest and the lost, and on those who have turned delinquent, because society by is continued maltreatment, cultural perversion and environmental pollution has made them so. The villain of the peace, in the larger view, is psychopathic society itself. Under the article 72 of the constitution, the power of the president to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment, is coupled with a duty, which must be exercised fairly and reasonably. Under the constitution, the President is required to give full reasons for rejecting a mercy petition. Such reasons should b fair and be able to stand the test of judicial review. Former Chief Justice Chandrachud observed that, the power of the president is to be applied equally to all condemned persons. He further observed that it is only the poor and the illiterate who failed to get reprieves. An illiterate poor poverty stricken persons, facing the hangman’s noose, could write only one line asking for mercy, while the rich and educated could effort lawyers, who cite examples of other cases in seeking relief. The inefficacy of death sentence as a deterrent is brought out with characteristic wit by Dr. Johnson, who noted Pick-picketers plying their trade in a crowd assembled to see one of their member executed. The United National Committee on Capital Punishment found that there is no Co-relation between the existence of Capital punishment and lower rates of crime. Death sentence does not provide any opportunity for the reformation and reclamation of the offender. The efforts of resocialization are frustrated. Numerous examples are not wanting where and when the extreme penalty of death has not lowered crime rates in countries where such a drastic punishment is prevalent. It also needs careful consideration on the fact that most of the dependents of condemned prisoners take to leading the life of criminals as they are deprived of their only bread-

winner, protector and guardian for leading a normal life as any other peace-loving and law abiding citizen. Considering all the loopholes and debating over the pros and cons for the extreme punishment of hanging by the noose, it would be worthwhile to do away with such a mode of inhuman penalty and provide the prisoner some succour for reformation by abolishing this scourge altogether and reduce it to the reasonable and tolerable extent. “Death is a necessary and inevitable end and will come when it will come,” said Shakespeare, and so let us not hasten it through unsanctified hands of humans, howsoever high and mighty they may be. ‘Better late than never’ to do away with such a ghastly act.

K.V.Reddy President All India Prison Officers Association 09849904733 / 09440060055 Email:[email protected]

PRISON SECURITY VISA-VIS THE STAFF When I commenced presenting a paper on prison security, in whatever angle I thought to cover, it came back to one spot, that is – PRISON STAFF & THEIR WELFARE. Without their whole-hearted assistance, their Co-operation, and Coordination, no useful purpose is served in mooting the idea of modernization of Prisons or enforcing stringent Prison Security. Hence, I decided to submit a paper from the vision of prison staff welfare & their role in providing efficient prison security. Prison is a highly sensitive and utmost security place, where all types of anti-social elements are sheltered, to wean them away from normal society and to provide protection to them for reformation. Prison is one of the isolated intake center, not only for the entire criminal justice system, but also an abode of first or last resort for a host of disguised health, Welfare and social problem cases. Hence, intensive security of a prison is of utmost importance and the basic requirement being that the prisoners are protected, so that peace and tranquility in society is also well protected.

Prison in general shall have four walls and a gate. The staff is adequately required to function the prison and to oversee watch and ward duties as per norms and procedures. What the prison staff has to do? The prison staff has to deal with violent, difficult, dangerous, hardcore, aggressive, sophisticated, political influential, insane etc types of prisoners. Everyone desires to treat the prisoners as normal human beings, but at the same time every-one is oblivious of the fact that the person to deal with the so called types of anti-social elements is also a human being. Discipline, dedication to duty, maintaining the highest standards of integrity are the watch words to provide security and that too for a prison taking care of different types of criminals, alleged or otherwise. A famous adage says “Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars the cage, for minds quiet and innocent take that for a hermitage”. Prisoners are human beings and the security men to protect them are also humans. The higher-ups want to impose their orders on the prison staff and tell them to follow the rules scrupulously. At the same time they are unmindful of the fact that these orders have to be carried out by human beings of different dispositions and certainly not mechanically or by a robot. Generally, in almost all the places where prisons exist, be it urban or rural areas, it is usually understaffed as compared to the vast number of prisoners lodged under various categories. Many a time, the prisons are overcrowded depending on the crime rate, but the staff providing security remain un altered and neglected for years, thereby giving a gobye to the stipulated jail manual. The prison staff have a great responsibility to shoulder and follow rules and regulations with equity, eandour and unbiasedly. When a prison is built, it will be planned to lodge a certain No. of prisoners (i.e. authorized accommodation) and staff allotted to the prison in commensurate with authorized accommodation. Infact, the prisons are so over crowded that their population is more than thrice the authorized accommodation, whereas the staff remains far below the requirement. For instance, the authorized accommodation of District Jail, Mahaboobnagar is only 76, whereas the average lock-up of the jail for the last decade is between 300 and 400. The staff allotted for watch and ward duties is 18 Warders and 7 Head Warders for 76 prisoners. Though, the figure remain at an average

of 350 prisoners, the authorities concerned never bothered to increase the staff strength accordingly. How is it possible, to keep vigilance on 350 prisoners with a meager staff of 25, out of which 2 have retired, one absentee and 3 usually on leave. What a sordid state of affairs. One can well imagine the stress and strain on the staff, to keep the prisoners safe and provide them security. Certainly, this situation needs an in-depth thinking and planning. In the prison where I have the privilege to be a part of administration, I am to place on record the salubrious surroundings of greenery with lovely flora, meticulously manicured by the prisoners themselves, providing amenities normally required by humans inside a modern palatial building with an open air theatre for holding cultural shows to the prisoners, an ultra modern kitchen to serve food for them and mind you, all these manned by the convicts who are well versed in their respective fields. The only drawback appears to be the staff pattern. Staffing is a serious problem. The staff receives inadequate pay, lives in under privileged conditions, works unmindful of any rewards or recognition. The over all security staff is far below average due to which they have to perform their duties round the clock in only two shifts constrained to bear the additional stress and strain due to lack of third shift staff and it is surprising that the government is turning a nelsons eye on the aspect of recruiting additional staff. General facilities, living conditions and pay and allowances of prison staff has to be increased enormously. Only them we can expect adequate security and discipline from them. Compassionate consideration for the prisoner’s plight is well understandable but at the same time, the feelings of the over-worked staff has also to be viewed dispassionately. When the authorities pay full attention to prison security, the staff security also has to be borne in mind. All of them do have the regular family responsibilities to be discharged. Some of the grievances faced by the staff needs to be redressed at some point to ensure that the prison security remains in safe hands. Besides the over worked job, monotony due to the ever-growing prison work, discontentment due to inadequate pay scales, non payment of essential allowances, inadequate promotional prospects, lack of periodical staff welfare programmes, no additional incentives like risk allowance or reward/recognition for exemplary discharge of duties etc., are some of the few problems that deserves special attention by the Government. If these are taken care of to mutual advantage, it will not only improve standards of security but provide them job satisfaction. We are proposed to consider the sentimental feelings of a prisoner, but not seems to appreciable the feelings of our subordinates. This is

strange & nobody pays any attention to the problems of the prison staff, though fully aware of. The prison security cannot be exclusively controlled by the higherups and it should be borne in mind that the role of a Warder in prison security is much more important than the role played by the higher-ups. When, we are not paying due attention that is deserved to be given to our subordinates, we cannot expect the staff to work strictly honestly and as per norms. In my opinion, whenever we think of the security of a prison, we have to think of the security of staff, their problems, their feelings as well as their welfare. Prison staff are the only isolated staff in the world, with whom no well meaning person likes to come close. Nobody wants them, but all we need them to work. No doubt that, those working in prisons, think that, they might have committed a great sin in their previous birth, to get a job to guard prisoners. Lack of facilities, lack of proper monetary returns, lack of influence, the prison staff is lagging behind all the other departments in their field of responsibility. We want them to over work and still not want to pay them considerably. We do not pay decent or mentable salary to them, despite asking them to be sincere, honest and scrupulously efficient. Security of a prison is mainly in the hands of the field staff. If they are happy and comfort, feel secure and recognized by the society, then the prisons will be a secured place for unsocial elements in society. Without solving the basic needs and problems of the staff, there is no reasoning in providing mental detectors, Walkie Talkies, Closed Circuit TVs, Arms and Ammunitions to support the security needs. Security of staff is the security of the prison. The following are the salient problems of the prison staff:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Poor pay scales Non payment of some essential allowances like holiday leave payment, extra Earned Leave, extra casual leave etc. Stagnation and very poor promotional prospects. Absence of basic facilities for the staff. Long hours of duty. Unsatisfactory working conditions. No system of rewards or recognition of good work. Lack of confidence, due to threats by influential and moneyed prisoners and their supporters. Insufficient staff.

10. 11. 12. 13.

Growing prison work. Monotony of job Absence of staff Welfare programmes. No risk allowance, etc.

Needless to say, the duties of prison staff is highly sensitive. They have to handle a good number of law-breakers from different backgrounds and to ensure their safety and security. Implementation of correctional and welfare programmes in a sympathetic and human manner is essential. For this, they require high discipline, motivation and industriousness to the core. It is rather difficult to improve the standards of security and discipline in the jails as long as, so much discontent, dissatisfaction, frustration and demoralization prevails among the prison staff. It is therefore necessary that causes for such anomaly are removed soon, so that the prisons may become more secure and there will be constructive and meaningful interaction between the staff and the prisoners so that jails can be made to function on more scientific and modern lines. The job of jail staff is difficult fully of hazards and personal risks, and is unpleasant in nature, bereft of glamour or dignity. The jail staff are virtually prisoners of duty without any holidays or freedom. They are expected to maintain good physique and be physically fit to be able to work, round the clock! The Police handle criminals hardly for a few days, whereas the jail staff have to handle them till eternity or the prisoners set free by the courts of law. The long pending, unimplemented request of the jail staff has been and is that they should be paid salaries and allowances on par with the Police Department. Which is a legitimate request and needs to be implemented forthwith. There is lack of constructive relationship and mutual confidence between the higher executive staff and the lower subordinate staff. Adequate training has to be given to the staff from top to bottom in this matter to manage themselves as per demands of duty. They require time bound rotation transfers, so that none can acquire roots and develop a vested interest. Short term training programmes has to be arranged frequently for all ranks of prison staff, so as to enable them to come out of their routine work, routine mentality and mechanical life and to gain knowledge in modern methods of prison administration.

Reforms in jails may be an expensive proposition, but even more may be the detrimental effects, if reforms are no undertaken as per demands of today. Security is the primary but not the sole function of prison system. Some of the prisons are poorly designed, poorly staffed and practically programmeless, floating like a rudderless boat. The proportion of prison staff Visa-Vis the inmates in the prison should be rationalized and some sort of short term training programmes are to be conducted to relieve them of routine work monotony. The men, who are all the time expected to be vigilant to provide security within, have to be treated at par with the protectors of law and order outside. By and large, their domestic responsibilities have to be protected to keep their family and children secure. This is a humble opinion after thorough analysis and authentic feedbacks, with prejudice to none.