Jails and the men

THAT the country’s jails badly need a shake-up has long been recognised. But as in other walks of life, jail reform has mainly remained a paper exercise. The changes have at best been marginal. It is indeed a pity to see the country dealing with 20th-century prisoners with 19th-century rules. Where the rules are right, the men behind them are wrong. In fact, between the rules and the authorities, there is not much to choose, especially when it comes to handling ‘explosive’ political prisoners whose number has lately been increasing. The Monghyr jail incident shows how clumsy could be the jail staff’s handling of detenues who are entitled to different treatment. The Bar Association’s probe report has put the blame on the shoulders of the jail staff for the violent incident. The authorities took the help of hardened criminals to fix up inconvenient prisoners who had made a “constant endeavour” to “stop the corruption indulged in by the jail staff and their insistence on the supply of essential articles in accordance with the rules”. These prisoners had also incurred the wrath of the authorities because of their role in the selection of a representative of the prisoners. The report says that the prisoners were attacked with canes, lathis, iron rods and other weapons inside their wards. Even the sick were not spared. And after the “cruel and unprovoked” assault, they “were not served food for 24 hours”. This is sheer highhandedness and deserves severe condemnation by all those who believe in upholding the basic dignity of undertrials.