The best prisons are those where prisoners are reformed, and not condemned to a life in jail. Believing firmly that a jail should be a correctional centre and not a place where convicts are locked up as a punishment, the Maharashtra Prisons Department came up with a special incentive for all prisoners in the state jails.
As per this incentive, prisoners who had to leave their studies halfway will be given a chance to complete their education in jail, and on passing each examination, they will be eligible for getting a waiver in their jail term. Every course will entitle them for a 90-day waiver.
Indian Masterminds spoke to senior IPS officer Amitabh Gupta, the Additional Director General of Police and Inspector General, Prisons and Correctional Services, Maharashtra, to get more details.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN JAIL
Besides providing vocational training and employment opportunities to the convicts, who are serving sentences for various crimes in the jails of the state, the Maharashtra Prisons Department is also equipping them for a better and useful way of life through diverse educational programmes. The aim is to inculcate good morals in their mind and inculcate in them important values that will help in social rehabilitation after being released from prison.
“Once they come out of prison after obtaining higher education inside it, society will accept them and they will be able to live a life of dignity. This will help raise the image of the prison and, thereby, spread a good message about our prisons among the public,” Mr. Gupta said.
STUDY CENTRES INSIDE JAIL
For this reason, the Maharashtra Prisons Department has tied up with Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University in Nashik and Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi, and opened study centres inside the prisons.
“Through them, the work of completing the pending education of the prisoners and bringing them into the educational stream is being done in the prisons with an unceasing spirit,” said Mr. Gupta.
An education department has also been established in the prisons for this purpose, and teachers appointed through the prison department. The admission process of the jail inmates to the study centres of the university is completed through these teachers.
The examinations are conducted in the prisons, under the supervision of the jail superintendent and other prison officers, with the help of the departmental centres of the universities and the teachers of the prison department.
Dr. Jalinder Supekar, Special Inspector General of Police (Headquarters), Prisons and Correctional Services, Maharashtra, supervises the entire process.
At present, there are study centres of the two universities in 10 prisons of the state, namely Yerwada, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Amravati, Mumbai, Taloja, Thane, Aurangabad, Nashik, and Kalyan District Jail.
FROM BA TO MA
From the BA academic curriculum, the inmates have been noticed mainly choosing subjects like Political Science, Economics, History, Hindi, and Marathi.
Mr. Gupta said, “It was decided to grant amnesty up to 90 days through the prison headquarters to convicts who complete their graduation from the prison, so that they can return to their families early and live the rest of their lives with dignity. It was also decided that those who obtain master’s degree after graduation should be exempted for another 90 days.”
Accordingly, a total of 158 convicts have availed special amnesty for 90 days after competing graduation. And, 14 prisoners have been given another 90-day waiver after completing their post-graduate studies.
PRISONERS RELEASED EARLY
A prison department circular says that convicts passing 10th, 12th, BA, MA, M.Phil and PhD will all be eligible for 90 days remission for each course. While for certificate course, they will be eligible for a 60-day remission.
The study centre at Thane Central Jail produced the highest number of successes (516 inmates) between 2014-2022. While the jail that saw the highest number of inmates (61) receiving remission between 2019-2023 is Nagpur Central Jail.
Due to the special amnesty, some prisoners have been released early and they have gone back to their families. Education is helping them lead a better life after release from prison. Motivated by the positive changes in the lives of their once fellow inmates, more and more prisoners are now choosing education over a mundane existence in cells.
Even those serving life sentences are turning to education, as studying helps them cope with their prolonged stay in jail. Few of them have even come out of jail after availing the maximum waiver through educational successes.
These, in a nutshell, are the true success stories, the ones that are achieved within the walls of a prison and are experienced fully in the sweet taste of freedom outside it.
