ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

The present prison system frightens the inmate, not refines; it wounds, not heals, it embitters him, not binds him to others; it burns the skin but not awakens the soul. It works on the animal in man but neglects the spirit within. And penal torture hardens the criminal while our objective is to socialize and redeem the individual. Radical humanism and progressive penology must gravitate towards the therapeutic processes, which heal and humanize, restore and socialize, reconcile punishment with dignity of personhood.1 This statement given by Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer characterize real scene behind the bars. Human rights being fundamental and inalienable for human beings, the issues of human rights violation has become more relevant in twenty first century. Prisoners are much far away from public domain, so they are most vulnerable to human rights violation. To deal with this issue some critical issues such as: century old rules; too many and scattered rules; lack of simple and uniform rules; organizational obsoleteness; lack of infrastructure and resources; overcrowding; plight of prison staff; too many under trials; slow and expensive judicial system; lack of after release programme; low professionalism; corruption; lack of discipline; torture; inhuman conditions; suicides; deaths; and lack of awareness are to be discussed in this article. To resolve these issues and concerns appropriate suggestions have been made. In some of the cases prison institution due to carelessness and dereliction in performing their duties increase the severity of prisoners' punishment to such an extent that their human rights got transgressed.