Putting Ex-Prisnoers on Road to Reintegration

Context: While investment in new prison buildings and hi-tech security gadgets may conjure a feeling of security, there are many other complex dimensions that need to be addressed.

Issues with the current prison system of India:

• Costly Penal Sanction: Almost 95% of the prisoners get released back into society, therefore merely locking them up is a costly affair.
• Neglects rehabilitation and reintegration: While the idea of rehabilitation was first mooted when the all-India Jail Committee 1919-20 was setup, there is no follow up of released prisoner or their needs.

• • • For, E.g. Despite India having a low recidivism rate, out of 1,84,962 convicts released last year, only 1,827 were rehabilitated.
    • Lack of rehabilitation renders the prisoners vulnerable to the social stigma and discrimination they face after their release.

• Minimal support provided: A static prison system focuses on security alone, and since 53.5% of convicts were given life imprisonment in 2019, lack of support during their tenure have the following consequences:

• • • Render the prisoners vulnerable to social stigma and discrimination: they face after their release.
      • For, E.g. The release of prisoners during COVID-19 lockdown has led to peculiar challenges which include rejection by villagers, lack of accommodation and transport and means of sustenance.

• Lack of halfway homes or rehabilitation grants: has led to reluctance on the part of families in accepting the offenders as another dependent person

• Costly Penal Sanction: Almost 95% of the prisoners get released back into society, therefore merely locking them up is a costly affair.

Significance of Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Prisoners:

• Rehabilitation has many layers: and is not a linear process, since it begins from the time of imprisonment and continues after the release and has to be psychological, social, moral and legal.
• The Nordic penal system, described as the most humane, is based on legal rehabilitation.
• Delancey Street Project in the US is a successful social project of rehabilitation which provides skills to the prisoners, helping them in getting jobs and join the mainstream.
• The open prisons based on ‘trust’ and ‘freedom’, like in Sanganer, promote autonomy and solidify new identities, with opportunities to exercise personal responsibility.
• Reintegration is a two-way street: involves changes in the part of the returning prisoner as well as the society.
• For, E.g. In Singapore, the Yellow Ribbon Project (2004), has raised public awareness and changed society’s mindset in giving former offenders a second chance.
• Victim-offender dialogue, surrogate victims and designing restorative prisons create a climate of reflection, empathy and desire to change for the better, instead of bitterness and revenge.

Conclusion: While the road to reintegration will have many bends and bumps, It can surely be made smoother from the beginning to the end as the journey of redemption continues.