Still 1836, public attention was not strongly drawn to prisons. The murder of Thomas Richardson, the Magistrate of 24 Parganas and the Superintendent of the jail, at the Presidency of Calcutta, was the moving cause of public attention to the jail problem"'. About this incident, E C Wines wrote, "the murder of the Governor of the most important prison in India was the immediate moving cause of the broad and exhaustive enquiry which was at once set on foot. The evidence collected shows that prison discipline had at that time only reached the stage of development in which considerable attention was given to the physical condition of the inmates of the prisons. But, not much to the moral relations and agencies. This report was prepared by Lord McCauley, the then Law Member of the Supreme Council of India.). In this report Lord McCauley expressed the idea that 'the best criminal code can be of very little use to a community unless there be good machinery for the infliction of punishment. This was the ideological cornerstone upon which the prisons in those days were based. The abolition of outdoor labor, general introduction of indoor work, the inauguration of separate system, better classification of convicts, careful separation of untried prisoners, the institution of central or convict prisons, and the regulation of prison system generally by employment of inspectors of prisons were the main recommendations of this report.

Lord William Bentick appointed the second committee on Jan 2, 1836 under the Chairmanship of H Shakespeare, a member of Governor General's Council. This committee is known as the Prison Discipline Committee. They submitted a report in 1838 to Lord Auckland. The major observations are "the rampant corruption in the establishment, laxity of discipline, and the system of employing prisoners on extra- mural labor'. The committee recommended increased rigorous treatment and rejected all notions of reforming criminals through moral and religious teaching, education or any system of rewards for good conduct". Inter alia it recommended separation of untried prisoners from the convicted ones. Another notable recommendation of this committee is the request for establishing the 'office of Inspector General of Prisons'. First Inspector General of Prisons was appointed in India in 1844, for the then North West Province. This post was made permanent in 1850. In those days IG (Prisons) were medical doctors. In 1858 the Royal Proclamation was issued and the responsibility of the administration was assumed by the British Crown. With the enactment of Indian Penal Code) 1860 (see Ch. II & III) prisons metamorphosed into the most important instrument of penal administration.

A second committee was appointed in 1864 to reconsider the whole question addressed by the first committee. Sir John Lawrence's examination of the condition of the jails in India led Lord Dalhousie to appoint this Commission of Jail Management and Discipline. The British regime was only interested in the prison from the point of view of administration and discipline. This commission made specific recommendation regarding the accommodation, improvement in diet, clothing, bedding, medical care of the prisoners and for the appointment of Medical Officers in jails. This commission fixed the required minimum space for one prisoner as 54 sq.ft. and 640 cubic ft. The commission also recommended the separation of male prisoners from females and children from adults.

A conference of experts was convened in 1877 at Calcutta to inquire into prison administration. This commission in British India or “conference" as it was called, on prisons and convict treatment in India was summoned by the imperial