The common man’s idea of a jail is a place where criminals thrive, where the dark side of humanity are incarcerated and those who go there never come back the same. This is not restricted to Goa or India, but to most places in the world where even those who
are released from prison never really make the transition to a normal life. The reasons for that are many, but one of the worst things to ever experience is that of being treated like an animal, being beaten into submission and to be very brutally assaulted. Such were the experiences of many of the inmates of Colvale Central Jail that prompted the Bombay High Court at Goa to issue a series of reforms.
In 2015, ten undertrials begged the courts not to be sent back to the jail, claiming that they were being assaulted with sticks by jail officials. The stories that they narrated were horrific and laid down a very bleak outlook of life behind bars. The perpetrators, for the most part, were those who were present to ensure that they were disciplined and maintain order. But disciplining someone by inhumane treatment and, over and above that, even denying inmates medical treatment speaks volumes about the attitude of many jail officials.
These reforms, laid down by the high court, will go a long way in ensuring that even criminals are treated like human beings. It will now be necessary to sensitise jail officials, impart training so that they can handle themselves in violent situations and there will also be a complaint box for inmates. These complaints will be processed regularly by court judges from the principal and sessions courts.
The very idea of a prison is not just to be a tool that enforces the law and introduces punitive action for crimes committed, but it’s also a place where criminals are rehabilitated. On the completion of their sentence, they should be able to integrate back into society and live a normal life. Perhaps that’s being a tad over-idealistic but the aim of this is not to force them back into the lives they lived before they were arrested. Beating them and treating them in a manner that is not conducive to their mental health will only reinforce the feeling that they don’t belong and that a life of crime is perhaps the only way to exist.
Inmates have regular interaction with jail officials and it is these officers who need to be their guide back into the real world. When they are sensitised and there is also infrastructure provided so that they cannot be mistreated, perhaps this might change the brand of criminals that have regular interactions with the law.
