One of the most devastating outcomes of anyone’s incarceration is his total lack of communication with outside world. This results in aberrational behaviour on the part of the inmate. It tells upon his mental health. It also leads to smuggling of cell-phones by the inmates into the prisons. Such smuggling of cell-phones leads to all types of security hazards. There is also no denying the fact that one of the major sources of corruption in the prisons all over the world is the facility of interview for which prison administration gets flak from the society.
West Bengal prisons are goverened by the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992
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Ongoing Reforms
Women & Children
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Artificial Limbs
Among the inmates in the correctional homes across the State, there are those with missing limbs – arms, legs and other body parts lost in accident or disease.In 2008 we identified 14 such prisoners who have been provided with artificial or prosthetic limbs. The entire operation including holding a camp at Presidency Correctional Home, where doctors examined prisoners, held trials and did the final fittings of the limbs was arranged by our NGO partner Satyam Seva Kendra, Kolkata. He also contacted and put us in touch with Mahavir Seva Sadan, Kolkata, which is doing exceptional service providing artificial limbs to the disabled and needy.
Certificates for Handicapped Prisoners
We have a sizeable number of inmates with varying degrees of disability in the correctional homes of the State. We, therefore, approached the office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, West Bengal for a special camp for disability certification of the inmates. The whole process had started with an awareness programme undertaken by us at Presidency Correctional Home in December, 2006 to make the prisoners aware regarding disability and various welfare programmes undertaken by the Government for persons with disabilities so that the prisoners and their family members back home could benefit from it.
Accordingly, we requested the State Commissioner (Disabilities) to hold a day-long Special Camp for the prisoners which were done at Presidency Correctional Home on 12.11.08. And to facilitate this, prisoners with disabilities in different correctional homes of the State were transferred to Presidency Correctional Home, Kolkata. The Department of Health deputed a team of 17 Medical and other Officers for the Camp. In all 106 prisoners, comprising both convicts and under trial prisoners and including male and female, old and young, as well as children were examined by the Medical Officers. The issue of certificates will help the prisoners in getting social justice on being released / bailed out.
Telephone Booth Facility
It definitely is a violation of the rights of any inmate as citizen of the country. It is to address all these issues that a provision has been made in the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992 that every prisoners shall have the right of communication with relatives and friends as permissible under Rules. However, other than interview across the window and writing letters there is hardly any other way of communication across India except in the State of Karnataka. The writing of letters is always not possible by the illiterate inmates. There is no denying that letter writing is also gradually becoming out dated. The telephone facility is now being increasingly allowed to prison inmates in many parts of the world.
One cannot however, be oblivious to the dangers involved if the security concerns involved are not addressed properly while thinking on such a facility. We have introduced telephone booths for the inmates of correctional homes in the State but after addressing all such security concerns. The unique sim-less telephone facility has been designed for us by Vodafone Essar East Ltd on our request.