Supreme Court suggests Mandela rules for treatment with prisoners

• The Supreme Court has asked the chief justices of high courts to institute acts on its own cognizance on PILs in their respective courts and clean up jails.
• These orders from the Supreme Court after the plea from the Sanjay Datt, who recently spent 5 years in a Maharashtra jail for possession of arms in the Mumbai blasts case. Sanjay had pleaded that a need for reformation in the jail administration was required and termed the Indian jails as a university for grooming criminals.

Main points of Supreme Court order:

• Supreme Court has issued orders to improve the living conditions in the jails for the prisoners. The bench has also demanded more open air jails in India.
• Open air jails are jails where the prisoners sever their sentence with minimum interference and supervision. They are not locked up in prision cells and there is less of perimeter security and are part of the rehabilitation plans for the criminals.
• The Court has urged the Centre and the States to treat the prisoners in as humanely way as possible. Just because they are criminals, they cannot be denied their fundamental rights to life and liberty.
• The Supreme court also said that the Central and the State governments need to understand that the criminals cannot be treated as chattel and they need to practice the true meaning of the Fundamental Right to life and liberty postulated by Article 21 of the Constitution (guaranteeing the right to life and liberty).
• Court has suggested that the number of visits from the family members and phone calls should be increased to reduce isolation and improve mental stability. The bench also referred the adoption of the Mandela rules on minimum treatment of prisoners, which is even followed by the UN General Assembly.

About Mandela Rules:

• The Mandela rules state that good principle and practice in the treatment of prisoners and the management of penal institutions should be adopted.
• It also includes a minimum standard of accommodation, personal hygiene, clothing, bedding, food, exercise, medical health services, contact to the outside world, availability of books, religion, retention of prisoners, notification of death, illness, transfer, removal of prisoners, quality and training of prisoner personnel, prison inspections.

Analysis:

• NHRC figures show that prisoners cut off from family and friends had a 50% more chance of committing suicide than those outside. The average suicide rate among the general public for this period is 11 (per 100,000) whereas the average suicide rate in prison is 16.9 (per 100,000). In other words, the average suicide rate in prisons is over 50% more than in normal conditions.
• Indian prisons face three long-standing structural constraints: overcrowding, understaffing and underfunding. The inevitable outcome is sub-human living conditions, poor hygiene, and violent clashes between the inmates and jail authorities
• Besides, while 33% of the total requirement of prison officials still lies vacant, almost 36% of vacancy for supervising officers is still unfulfilled. In the absence of adequate prison staff, overcrowding of prisons leads to rampant violence and other criminal activities inside the jails.
• Indian jails have often been dubbed as a university for grooming criminals due to pathetic and inhumane conditions. In the absence of a robust Whistleblower Protection Act and structural changes to address the issues of overcrowding and understaffing, India’s prisons will continue to be heaven for politically connected criminals and hell for socio-economically disadvantaged undertrials, some regular media uproars notwithstanding.

By: Vishal