CJI launches campaign against drugs; structured rollout begins across Punjab

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant launching a month-long campaign aimed at combating drug abuse among youth. The initiative “Youth Against Drugs” driven by Punjab State Legal Services Authority, was virtually inaugurated from District Jail, Gurugram.

The launch took place during the programme “Empowering Lives Behind Bars, Real Change: The New Paradigm of Correctional Justice”, in the presence of Supreme Court judges – Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Augustine George Masih. Also present were Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra, along with other judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Executive Chairman of the authority Justice Mishra described the effort as a calibrated shift from mere punitive response to early-stage awareness. “Awareness today prevents incarceration tomorrow,” the judge said, warning that drugs “do not merely destroy bodies, they destroy families, futures and faith”.

Justice Mishra said criminal jurisprudence did not fulfil its role unless reformation was embedded into enforcement. “Correctional justice, therefore, is not indulgence. It is public safety. Correctional justice is constitutional courage,” the judge said, while asserting that no individual was beyond reform, only “beyond opportunity”.

The authority outlined a district-wise execution model involving schools, colleges, de-addiction centres, legal clinics, para-legal volunteers, doctors, NSS/NCC units and community forums. The campaign has been structured into consecutive awareness phases, covering sensitisation, community mobilisation, youth-specific interventions and rehabilitation-tier support. Special legal literacy sessions inside prisons will explain NDPS consequences and connect inmates’ families to assistance mechanisms.

The campaign runs parallel to correctional reforms launched and showcased during the event. Punjab activated long-term, certified skill-training inside jails through one of the largest coordinated reform blueprints in the region. Eleven Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) are currently being made operational across 24 jails, offering NCVET-certified electrician, COPA, plumbing, welding, bakery, sewing technology and cosmetology courses to nearly 2,500 inmates. Short-term NSQF-aligned modules include jute-bag making, mushroom cultivation, basic hardware training, fabrication and bakery skills.

Rehabilitation has been backed with in-prison employment exposure through petrol pumps operating in nine jails, a functioning inmate-run radio station Radio Ujala, yoga and sports programmes, and structured calling systems to maintain family ties.

Justice Mishra quoted Justice VR Krishna Iyer before explaining the philosophical foundation for institutional reform: “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future. Never write off the man wearing the criminal attire, but remove the dangerous degeneracy in him.” The judge said those words “are not rhetoric… These are the core of our judicial philosophy” and added that “justice that does not heal only postpones crime”.

Justice Mishra closed with an expectation that the effort would create deterrence through awareness rather than punishment alone. “Let our prisons not manufacture repeat offenders, but help in restoring responsible citizens. Let our courts not merely sentence, but shape futures,” the judge said.