20: For BS – Jail is like a Big Boss

Any discussion on prisoners in a sympathetic manner evokes a sharp
response: “Why should you worry about these people? They are
dangerous criminals, murderers, and rapists, why complain if they are ill-treated? They deserve it.” In the popular mind, prisoners are dangerous
criminals and hence deserve no mercy. But there are certain under-trails,
who are directly or indirectly involved in misappropriation or violation of
rules etcetera, who have different categories than the criminals.
I recollect that during my four decades of service career, the life of field
staff, especially those who are custodians of stocks, is always risky, and they
could be behind the bars at any time despite the fact that they may not be
willing to do hanky-panky but has to do it for one or the other reason,
directly or indirectly.
I do remember when I was a student; we were taken to the central jail to
see the furniture factory on the jail premises. A stamp was fixed on my
arm which has to be shown while coming out of the jail premises. The
same procedure is still adopted when the technology has so advanced to
keep a digital record of any person to identify at any time.
About a few months back, one of my colleagues, happened to be under trial
prisoner and I, as an active NGO, got a chance to meet him in the jail
when a service camp was organized inside the jail premises for inmates.
Since the premises were under CCTV surveillance I told the jail
authorities about my under-trial colleagues who were known to me
because of my continuous three visits to the medical and dental check
up camps and also to meet the children of ladies inmates residing with
them.
Who are the people in jails? Are they dangerous criminals, a threat to
society? Our investigations establish that a majority are either under trial or picked up for other reasons.
If you are poor and have once landed in jail for whatever reason or no
reason probability of your being back in jail off and on is fairly high.
This is the impression I gathered from my talk with some of the under-trial inmates in the jail.
Life behind bars raises many questions in one’s mind like; what are
the conditions in jails? What is the effect of confinement on the human
psyche, away from friends and relatives, persistently nagged by fears?
FRANKLY SPEAKING… HARISH MONGA
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Caught in his own complexes, with no one to console him, how does a
prisoner live through his years in jail?
Ordinary prisoners convicted or under-trials had a different story to tell
but in the eyes of the law, they are culprits and have to face the music of the law
as per the circumstances put forth at the time of the trial of the case. Despite
these improvements, we are always reminded that we are in jail under the
total control of others. There are still the loud echoing sounds of the
clank of iron doors. There are the monotone gray and beige bare
surroundings. There is a total aloneness of enforced solitude.
Frankly speaking, when I last met my colleague inside the jail premises,
he said, “For me jail is like a house of Big Boss. For the first two or three
days, one has a feeling of loneliness but after that one has to reconcile
with the situation. Here I am free to talk, discuss, and say anything with
my inmates like that in Big-boss house. I will too be out after the expiry
of 90 days when normally the bail is granted except in murder or to hard
core criminals, which I am not”.
He, however, added with a smiling face and soft tone like the religious
‘Babas’, “My entry in the central jail which has to be extended on
presenting me before the magistrate after every 14 days, which is now
called “Sudhar Ghar” (Reform House) has changed my vision towards
life and working style when once I am out”. My dear HK, “I would
be totally reformed when I come out after a couple of weeks and I will
not be that “BS” which you met about two decades back”