Mahatma Gandhi on Prison Reforms

Book excerpt: Correction of an individual who had committed a crime and send him back to the very same society in one of the prime objectives of the Prison system which is part of the Criminal Justice System of the country. Even after long 65 years of Independence the prisons and correctional system in India have not changed much to achieve the said objective. Because there is not much substantial amendments to the prime legislations in the field, mainly in the Prisons Act 1894 and Probation of Offenders Act 1958.There are daily reports from news papers regarding the human rights violations in various prisons in India. Gandhiji suggested enactment of a new Prisons Act in order to suit the objective of correction. Till then the prison officers will be helpless to change the atmosphere of Prisons as they have to act according to existing law. Prisons needs change in order to prevent thousands of simple offenders becoming hardens due to the treatment received within the prisons. Here the observations and suggestions of Gandhiji on prison conditions and prison reforms becomes relevant as it gives an insight on what is happening within the prison walls and the need and ways of change in a positive way and in the larger interest of the society as each individual has got a dignified existence. It is interesting to find that Mahatma Gandhi fought earnestly by giving petitions, fasting within and out of prisons, whenever violations of human rights had come to his notice relating to him or to other prisoners in the prisons of South Africa or in India.