Prison reforms in India: Emerging issues

In other words, imprisonment as a mode of dealing with offenders has been in vogue since the time immemorial. Prisons and correctional services are said to be the “jail end” of criminal justice administration. Prisons in the present day contexts play the role of reformatories also. Prison, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a place, properly arranged and equipped for the reception of persons who by legal process recommitted to it for safe custody while awaiting trial for punishment.4 Lord Macaulay drew attention of the Government of India to the terrible conditions in the Indian Jails and on his suggestion, a Committee was appointed on 2nd January, 1836, to look in to the conditions and report thereon. It was the First Committee on Prison Reformation. The enactment of the Borstal Act, the Childrens’ and the Probation Acts and The Punjab Good Conduct Prisoners’ Provisional Release Act were undoubtedly the direct or indirect result of the general interest, aroused by the Report. The Report, it may be remarked, “laid the foundation stone of modern prison system in India”. The present committee was of the opinion that the enactment of a uniform and comprehensive legislation on prisons would be possible within the existing provisions of the Constitution of India, as India is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966. The question of inducting alternatives to imprisonment involves certain amendments in the substantive law.