Prison reform in Punjab

THREE important Bills dealing with the administration of prisons in the province are coming up before the Legislative Council in the present session. The first of these is titled the Prisons (Punjab Amendment) Bill and adds the following further provision to Section 6 of the Prisons Act, 1894: “Provided further that in Punjab, the Local Government may appoint for any prison a Deputy Superintendent instead of a Jailor, and an Assistant Superintendent instead of a Deputy or Assistant Jailor, and these officers when so appointed shall exercise the same powers, discharge the same duties, and be subject to the same disabilities as Jailors and Deputy/Assistant Jailors, respectively.” The Bill is intended to give effect to the recommendation of the Prisons Inquiry Committee recently appointed by the Punjab Government, which proposed that the present Jailors, Assistant Jailors and Deputy Jailors be replaced by men of a higher status receiving a higher scale of pay. It is, however, only an enabling measure, and does not make it obligatory on the Government to introduce the reform in all jails in the province. In the statement of objects and reasons appended to the Bill, we read: “Owing to the difficulty of finding simultaneously a large number of officers, the change will be introduced gradually and not in all jails at the same time. The Bill has been so drafted as to provide for the introduction of the new system in successive jails, as officers become available. The reason given by the Government for not simultaneously introducing the proposed reform in all jails is by no means convincing, and we make no doubt that suitable men in sufficient numbers will be forthcoming if the Government looks for them in the right manner through a properly constituted competitive examination.”