Prisons as industry hubs

Rachna Khaira in Jalandhar

He is only 21 years, but has murder charges against him. “I got into a fight, and in a fit of anger hit one of my classmates. The person died on way to the hospital,” says the young boy lodged in a suburban prison in Punjab. 

There are hundreds like him trapped into a world of 'crime,' their dreams lost behind the prison walls. Rehab plans of the state government aren't many, and they lack enough strength to wean away 'accidental criminals.' That's why young inmates don't stand much chance of starting over. There are over two dozen prisons with over 8,213 convicts, including 393 women, in Punjab. The state also has 23,018 prisoners under trial (as on October 31, 2017). 

IPS Sahota, ADGP, prisons department, Punjab, says the state can learn a lot from Telangana. “Most Punjab prisons occupy prime locations. The areas around jails can be utilized to set up industrial hubs providing employment to the jail inmates in the long run,” says Sahota. “A team of jail officials has been sent to the role model state Telangana to study prison reforms there.” 

Sahota says the state home department has to clear such a proposal. “The plan has the potential to provide many rehabilitation opportunities to the inmates, helping in making the department self-reliant. Retired jail officials too can join in.” 

Young and restless

Punjab jail inmates are mostly in the 18-30 age group. In the absence of any worthwhile work, they get involved in occasional gang wars, jail breaks and drug peddling. Punjab does have a proposal to set up a Prisons Development Board (PDB), but there is hardly any movement in the file work in the home department. The absence of a dedicated fund has led to prisoners being treated with outdated ways of preoccupations. Though some of the inmates are made to manufacture 'Made in Jail' goods, the variety of work remains confined to chakki peesna (grinding wheat), manufacturing low-quality handlooms products, repairing furniture and manufacturing biscuits and soaps. 

Telangana has made revolutionary changes in the ‘prison industry’ in the last three years. The state has recorded an annual sale of Rs 277 crore, earning a net profit of Rs 8.72 crore from Jan 1 to Sept 30 this year. In Punjab, the prison industry recorded an annual turnover of only Rs 2.30 crore in 2013-14, but it slid to Rs 1.04 crore in 2014-15. The department could register an annual turnover of Rs 1.13 crore till March 31 this year. 

“Though prison industry has existed for decades, the Telangana government could modernize it only in the last three years,” says VK Singh, Telangana director-general of prisons and correctional services. He said the state government has given the DGP (prisons) a discretionary power to spend up to Rs 10 lakh. 

Get them to work

At present the Punjab prison department runs handloom units in various jails. Learning from Tihar Jail in New Delhi, it has also opened a bakery unit in Ludhiana and a handmade paper printing unit in Patiala. The handloom units' urgent upgrade to power looms has not helped things much because of inadequate financial backup. The department has earned Rs 1.44 crore through its agriculture farm, but the turnover reduced to a mere Rs 72.25 lakh in 2014-15 after a major chunk of its land was taken over by the Punjab Urban Development Authority to develop commercial properties. The income is reported to have gone down further in the last two financial years.

The inmates’ daily wages are not very encouraging. In Telangana, the wage structure is Rs 70 a day for a skilled inmate and Rs 50 for the semi-skilled. It pays up to Rs 130 daily to an inmate on the basis of his work. In Punjab, these wages stand at Rs 60 and Rs 50 for a skilled and a semi-skilled worker, respectively. The department facing acute shortage of staff has to wait for at least six months to get the funds from the home department. 

Some suggestions

• The Punjab education department needs over 14,000 metric tons of paper to print books and answer sheets every year for which it floats a tender. It can assign the job to the jail department, which can improve upon the existing facilities for paper production. The education department can also order school uniforms, furniture and midday meals from the jail authorities.
• Kapurthala Modern Jail can be a major hub for clothing material such as bed sheets for hospitals.
• Patiala Jail has a handmade paper manufacturing unit on the lines of Tihar Jail. The units can be upgraded so that various government wings can order stationery from the jail department.