HYDERABAD: The prisons department needs to come up with a refined model wherein an offender serving jail time should be told about his mistakes and changed as a person rather than being shut in and left out, according to city-based activists. Prisons were for reformation and rehabilitation of offenders, and not for mere confinement, they said, adding that overcrowding and understaffing in jails just added to their woes.
To be held criminally responsible, a person must have known what they did during the criminal act and must be told that it was wrong under the law, said Mamta Rajkumar, a city-based activist.
“Mindset of convicts, especially in grave offences, should be dealt with delicately and a procedural approach is needed to reform them. It is always the circumstances and the past, be it upbringing, trauma or environment which change an individual and make them opt for unlawful means. The department needs to come up with a refined model to reform convicts,” she said.
Dr Beena Chintalapuri, a retired professor of psychology at Osmania University, who counsels and conducts cognitive and behavioural skill based programmes in jails, said, “There are plenty of prisoners who chose not to go back to crime. We spend time with them, train and talk to them about how they can change their acts. We also conduct a lot of activities to help them and a lot of efforts and planning go behind these programmes.”
