It is astonishing to think that what Mahatma Gandhi wrote a hundred years ago still holds true today. While the administration has shifted from British to Indian hands, the corruption and systemic issues remain unchanged. The only notable difference is the advancement in technology, which now serves both the jail authorities and the criminals.
On one hand, corrupt officials leverage these technical improvements to perpetuate the same flawed system. On the other hand, criminals inside the prison continue their activities with greater sophistication, often with the cooperation of certain corrupt officials. These activities are further enabled by the support and approval of politicians outside the system.
As Tamil poet Kannadasan aptly wrote in a film lyric:
“Maradaiya maradu; manamum kunamum maradu”
(From Kudumbath Thalaivan—Head of the Family)
This translates to “Both the heart and character won’t change,” a truth that seems to endure across time.
Gurukulam, 21-12-2024
285. MY JAIL EXPERIENCES-III
The jails have, therefore, become hot beds of vice and degra-dation. The prisoners do not become better for their life in them. In most cases they become worse than before. Perhaps all the world over, the jails are an institution the most neglected by the public. The result is that there is little or no public check on their administration. It is only when a political prisoner of some fame finds himself within the walls of a prison that there is any public curiosity about the happenings therein.
What classification there is of prisoners is regulated more in the interest of the administration than those of the prisoners. Thus, for instance, one would find habitual criminals and persons who have committed not a moral but a merely statutory offence are put together in the same yard, in the same block and even in the same cell. Fancy forty or fifty persons of varying types being locked in the same cell for night after night! An educated man, who had been convicted under the Stamp Act for having used an officially-defaced stamp, was put in the same block as habitual offenders regarded as dangerous characters. It is no unusual thing to see murderers, abductors, thieves and mere statutory offenders huddled together. There are some tasks which can only be done jointly by several men, such as working the pump. Able-bodied men alone can be put onto such tasks. Some highly sensitive men were included in one such gang. Now the ordinary prisoners in such a gang will use language which no decent (p.313) man would care to hear. The men who use indecent language have no sense of indecency in the language they use. But a sensitive man will feel most uncomfortable when such language is used in his presence. Convict-warders are in immediate charge of such gangs. In the discharge of their duty, it is customary for them to swear at prisoners in the choicest billingsgate. And when they are sufficiently worked up, they do not spare the rod either. Needles to say, both the punishments are not only unauthorised, but they are unlawful. I could however, present quite a decent catalogue of things unlawful that happen in jails to the knowledge of, and sometimes even with the connivance of, officials. In the case mentioned by me, the sensitive prisoner could not put up with the foul language. He, therefore, refused to work in the gang unless it was stopped….for it must continue to recur so long as prisoners are not classified in accordance with a moral standard and with regard to their human requirements rather than administrative convenience.
One would have thought that, in a jail where every prisoner is under surveillance night and day and can never be out of the sight of a warder, crimes will not be possible. But, unfortunately, every conceivable crime against morality is not only possible, but is committed almost with impunity. I need not mention small pilferings, deceptions, petty and even serious assaults, but I wish to refer to unnatural crimes. I will not shock the reader with any details. In spite of my many jail experiences, I did not think that such crimes were possible in jails. But the Yeravda experience gave me more than one painful shock. The discovery of the existence of unnatural crimes produced one of the greatest of the shocks. All the officials who spoke to me about them said that, under the existing system, it was impossible to prevent them. Let the reader understand that, in a majority of cases, the consent of the victim is lacking. It is my deliberate opinion that it is possible to prevent such crimes if the administration of jails is humanized and can be made a matter of public concern. The number of prisoners in the jails of India must be several hundred thousand. It should be the concern of public workers to know what happens to them. After all, the motive behind punishment is reformation. The legislature, the judge and the jailor are believed to expect that the punishments would act as deterrents, not merely for the physical and mental hurt they cause, but for the (p. 314) repentance that prolonged isolation must bring about. But the fact is that punishments only brutalize the prisoners. In the jails they are never given an opportunity for repentance and reform. The human touch is lacking. True, there is a weekly visit from religious preachers. I was not permitted to attend any of these meetings, but I know that they are mostly shams. I do not wish to suggest that the preachers are shams. But a religious service once a week for a few minutes can produce no impression on those who ordinarily see nothing wrong in crimes. It is necessary to provide a responsive atmosphere in which a prisoner unconsciously sheds bad and cultivates good habits.
But such atmosphere is impossible so long as the system of entrusting convicts with most responsible work is continued. By far the worst part of the system is the appointment of convict-officers. These men are necessarily long-term prisoners. They are, therefore, men who have committed the most serious crimes. Generally the bullies are chosen as warders. They are the most forward. They succeed in pushing themselves to the front. They are the instruments for the commission of almost all the crimes that take place in the jails. A free fight resulting in one death once took place because two such warders were concerned in the same prisoner who was a victim of their unnatural lust. Everyone knew what was happening in the jail. But the authorities intervened only to prevent further fighting and further bloodshed. These convict-officers recommend tasks for the other prisoners. They supervise the tasks. They are responsible for the good behaviour of the prisoners under their charge. In fact, the will of the permanent officers is expressed and carried out through these convicts who are dignified as “officers”. The marvel to me was that under such a system, things were not much worse than they actually were. It once more demonstrated to me how superior men were to a wicked system as they were inferior to a good one. Human beings seem naturally to seek the middle path.
The whole of the cooking, too, is entrusted to prisoners. The result is indifferent cooking and organized favouritism. It is the prisoners who grind corn, shred vegetables, cook food and serve. When complaints as to short and badly cooked rations were recurringly made, the invariable answer was that the remedy was in their own hands as they cooked their own food, as if they were related to one another and understood mutual responsibility! Once when I pushed the argument to its logical extent, I was told that no administration could afford the cost. I differed from the view at the time of (p.315) argument. Further observation has confirmed me in my contention that, under a well-devised system, jail administration can be made self-supporting. I hope to devote a chapter to an examination of jail economics. For the present, I must satisfy myself with saying that no question of cost can possibly be admitted as relevant in a consideration of moral abuses.
Young India, 1-5-1924, CWMG, Vol. 27, pp. 313-315
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