National Webinar on Rehabilitation ofPrisoners in the COVID 19 Context:

CHALLENGESANDWAY FORWARD Organized by

Institute of Correctional Administration (ICA) and Prayas,

Centre for Criminology & Justice,

School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

17th July 2020

Acknowledgements

Government officialsDr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar, IPS (Retd.), Former DG, BPR&D, MHA, GOIDr. Upneet Lalli, Dy. Director, Institute of Correctional Administration, ChandigarhMr. Jagjit Singh, Inspector General of Prisons, HaryanaMs. Shefali Tiwari, Superintendent, Narsingpur Central Prison, Madhya PradeshMs. Anita Rai, Superintendent, Bengaluru Central Prison, KarnatakaMr. Jai Gopal, Superintendent, Nahan Prison, Himachal Pradesh

Resource PersonsMr. Selvan Xavier, CEO, Sahaara Charitable Society, Mumbai, MaharashtraMs. Monica Dhawan, Director, India Vision Foundation, New DelhiMr. Ravindra Vaidya, Founder Member & President, Varhad, Amravati, MaharashtraMr. Rabbi Jayakaran, Founder, Peacemakers, KarnatakaMs. Cecilia Davies, Social Worker & Advocate, Bengaluru, KarnatakaMr. K.R. Raja, Founder & Executive Director, Global Network for Equality, Chennai, Tamil NaduMr. Chandrakant Shinde, Coordinator, PrayasMs. Krupa Shah, Bharuch Unit, Prayas

Report Writing TeamMs. Devayani TummaMs. Sharli Mudaliyar

EditingDr. Upneet LalliDr. Vijay RaghavanMs. Devayani Tumma

Compilation and DesignShri Nandkishore Sale

Introduction

Dr.UpneetLalli, Deputy Director, ICA, Chandigarh, introduced the topic of the webinar, on the eve of Nelson Mandela Day. She spoke about the Mandela Model Rules for Prison Management and Standard Minimum Rules focusing on rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners. She then introduced the Chief Guest of the webinar, Dr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar, IPS (Retd.), former DG, BPR&D, MHA, GOI. A brief background of Dr Meeran Borwankar was highlighted and her role in institutional building, governance, and gender issues, etc.

Opening remarks by the Chief GuestDr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar ,IPS (Retd.), Former DG, BPR&D, MHA, GOI.

Dr.Borwankar quoted Nelson Mandela: “Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched my soul”. [Nelson Mandela spent a total of 27 years in prison (18 was in just one prison)]

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She thanked ICA and Prayas for having organized the webinar and having her as a Chief Guest for the occasion. She highlighted that there are two perceptions of prison – one as a place for engendering crime or a place which enriches our soul. During her police tenure, she worked in the Maharashtra prisons for 4 years, which gave her an opportunity to understand the prison staff, inmates, culture, and administration of the prison department. She said that we cannot change the prison culture. Our prisons are understaffed and the staff is overworked. Even though forward-looking prison officials are focusing upon rehabilitation, due to overwork and lack of training, they cannot devote time to the rehabilitation of prisoners. NGOs and students could provide counselling especially for first-time offenders. The prison inmates should be encouraged to walk to reduce mental stress. We need to stop recidivism and for this rehabilitation is a practical solution.

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Presentation on “Rehabilitation Framework in Prisons” Dr Upneet Lalli, Dy. Director, Institute of Correctional Administration, Chandigarh

Reintegration of Offenders: Facilitating the reintegration of the offender into society as constructive, law-abiding citizen is crucial for effective crime reduction

New sentencing goals

Rehabilitation or Reformation involves changing of criminal lifestyles into law-abiding ones by ‘correcting’ the behaviour of offenders through treatment, education and training and reintegration.

• Rule 5 and 98 (Vocational Training) of Mandela Rules and United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules) 2015.

• Different forms of rehabilitation i.e. personal, legal, social, moral.

• Prison-based rehabilitation must include physical health care, mental health care and psychological support, substance abuse treatment, educational and vocational treatment and work experience.

• Re-entry needs of prisoners includes employment, housing, family acceptance and social acceptance.

• Process of Re-entry and Reintegration:

Institutional Phase (Protect and Prepare) – e.g. drug addicted inmates to be admitted intode-addiction centre.

Structured entry (Control and Restore) – e.g. open prison is the last stage of imprisonment. It allows the inmates to work in society and come back to the open prison in the evening.

Re-entry/Community phase (Sustain and Support) – Entry into the community: India does not have the concept of half-way home. In such a situation, shelter becomes an issue for released migrant inmates, who are unable to go home (post-release during COVID-19).They are not paid enough wages while they work in prison, which can be utilised for survival until they reach their homes. Some states pay higher wages to the inmates, while some get negligible wages, which makes it difficult post-release. Lack of prison industries also affects rehabilitation. If the inmate is unproductive, then family too will not accept the inmate, which can lead to stigma

Dr Vijay Raghavan, Professor, Centre for Criminology and Justice, TISS, Mumbai & Prayas Project Director thanked ICA for collaborating with Prayas to hold the webinar on a pertinent issue, as rehabilitation of prisoners is often a neglected area. The webinar will give an opportunity to discuss with prison officials and decide the rehabilitation steps.

He moderated the presentations made by the various NGO representatives related to the rehabilitation of prisoners during COVID-19.

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Presentation by Prayas representatives – Shri Chandrakant Shinde, Coordinator, Prayas – Mumbai Unit & Ms. Krupa Shah, Coordinator, Prayas, Bharuch Unit

Shri Chandrakant Shinde, Coordinator, Prayas, Mumbai Unit

• Prayas has designed a social reintegration programme called the NGO Placement Program, where released prisoners are placed in NGOs, to develop employable skills in the NGO sector. They receive a stipend during this placement. They are mentored to initiate entrepreneurship activities.

• Most Prayas clients belong to low socio-economic backgrounds, weak support system and survive on daily wages doing casual labour, housekeeping work, as canteen workers, or engaged in informal sector businesses like gajra making, shoe repairs, vending or selling sundry items, or as auto or taxi drivers. The lockdown announced by the government due to the COVID-19 crisis, needless to say, has impacted their daily earnings.

• In the first month after lockdown, Prayas provided financial support to the clients through cash transfers to their bank accounts. In the following months, rations are being provided to the clients and their families either through home delivery or through PayTM to the shop owner directly. 250 families of prisoners from Byculla District Prison and Thane Central Prison were provided ration kits as per the list given to Prayas by the prison authorities. 51 prisoners released from Bharuch District Prison were provided rations kits.

• For many under trials who were not granted interim bail by the courts, Prayas tried pursuing these cases through the DLSA advocates but found that DLSA advocates were not attending courts.

• In one case, a young boy walked to his village in Raigad district after his release but he was not permitted into the village whereby Prayas had to conduct medical tests and arranged shelter for him. Similar was the case of another boy from Bihar who was released and wanted to go back home but he could not get a ticket on the train whereby we had to conduct medical tests and arrange shelter for him as well.

• Counseling and guidance is being provided to the clients telephonically.

• Amid lockdown, Prayas intervened in a case, where a released prisoner’s 5-year-old child could not be taken to doctor for medical assistance. Prayas got in touch with the government hospital and the doctor provided online counselling support to the child.

• The rehabilitated and settled clients are also requesting Prayas for help. More requests from the clients is coming with regard to financial assistance for self-employment like masks making, selling of vegetables or fruits, etc.

• Prayas has created a WhatsApp group of clients to provide them online awareness about the Corona virus, special schemes of the government, acquiring citizenship rights documents, and also online trainings.

• Prayas has provided to the prisons of Mumbai, Thane, Latur and Bharuch, women and children institutions with masks, digital thermal thermometer, sanitary napkins, toiletries,

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handwash, handkerchiefs, sanitizers.

• 24 prisoners released from Latur District Prison and hailing from the districts of Latur, Osmanabad and Nanded were escorted to their homes.

Ms.Krupa Shah, Coordinator, Prayas – Bharuch Unit

• As the mulakat (physical meeting) has been stopped, both the inmates as well as family members are anxious and worried about each other’s health and wellbeing.

• Due to closure of courts, the inmates have queries related to their cases and legal issues like bail, etc. Since entry to the prisons is closed social workers cannot go to prison and counsel the inmates.

• With regard to the children living outside with family members, the incarcerated parents have worries about their children’ education. In Gujarat, classes are being held through the television medium but it is also important to understand the needs of the children and the infrastructure available with them to avail such facilities.

• Due to anxiety and frustration, quarrels between the prisoners have increased. So there is a need to give thought to improving the communication patterns inside prison.

• Children of prisoners were admitted into institutions due to unfavourable family environment or family being incapable of taking care of the children. But due to the lockdown, these children have been sent back home due to which either they are back in the same unfavourable environment or have become a burden to the family. Readmission of the children into the institutions would take some time.

Presentation on “Rehabilitation in the COVID-19 context – Mumbai & Thane districts”Presenter: Shri Selvan Xavier, CEO Sahaara Charitable Society

Main beneficiaries of their COVID-19 relief programme were the victims affected by lockdown. After one month of the lockdown, the organisation conducted a survey and found that nearly 94% of the clients were without jobs. So the organization concentrated on 5 components of rehabilitation - of the beneficiary and their families with a focus on long term relief operations to provide sustenance namely food security, spreading awareness about the preventive measures related to the virus, trauma counseling, medical support, house rent support, ration kits and other essentials like PPE kits, masks, sanitizers, medicines and health kits to the prisons and children homes.

The organization has provided repeated rations (thrice) and also focused on health, hygiene and security. They worked through their database, and also collaborated with Prayas in helping out their clients. They coordinated with the prison Superintendent and took the list of released prisoners. Preliminary calls were made to them to give information about the NGO, provided counseling, food kits, health kits, cooking gas, vocational training, educational sponsorships. Individual reintegration plans were chalked out related to the vocational training and job placement of the clients. For e.g. one of the female beneficiary released from prison and living with her 2 children was provided a sewing machine. She saw the pandemic as an opportunity and started making masks at home and sold them locally which presently is a thriving business for her.

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Presentation on “Rehabilitation of Prisoners in the COVID context – Delhi, Uttar Pradesh & Haryana”Presenter: Ms. Monica Dhawan, Director, India Vision Foundation

The speaker briefly spoke about the organization’s Rehabilitation Programme ie ‘Ready to Release’ (R2R) Workshops, Creating Beneficiary Data Base, Connecting with Released Inmates, Resource Mapping for released inmates and DHUN Released Beneficiaries (Music skills)

Interventions by India Vision Foundation during COVID-19

• Retrieving Information of Released Inmates from Prison Authorities: Creating active data base of released inmates and dividing Project Team for planned intervention.

• Providing E-counseling: Conducting awareness sessions on COVID-19/Health & Hygiene and available government schemes and resources.

• Providing emotional support: Connecting on regular basis with 329 male and 130 female released inmates to provide them with emotional support and correct information.

• Ration Support: Providing essential items and hygiene kits to more than 100 families of released inmates on monthly basis since lockdown

• Working with Children of Incarcerated Parents: Conducting educational classes, art/craft, and story-telling sessions with around 200 children of inmates both inside and outside prison.

• Virtual Meeting of Released Inmates: A Released Beneficiary Virtual Meet with 100 released inmates, (including male and female inmates of Haryana, UP & Delhi) was conducted on digital medium. The objective was to do a collective need analysis and plan interventions accordingly.

• Networking: India Vision Foundation along with International Bridges of Justice (IBJ), India formed a Coalition of NGOs for Delhi Prisons to reach prison inmates, their families and released inmates during COVID-19.

• The speaker discussed about a woman beneficiary who lost her job (due to lockdown) and felt very insecure about her running her household. The organization provided counselling and monthly ration support to her. Also engaged her children by providing them with educational worksheets to keep them constructively busy.

Presentation on “Efforts put in during the lockdown period to help the prisoners and their families.”

Presenter: Shri Ravindra Vaidya, Founder Member and President, VARHAD, Amravati, Maharashtra

Work done by the organization during the lockdown period:

• Due to COVID-19 crisis, the mulakat with the families was totally stopped due to which the organization had to become a via media between the prisoners and their families.

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• The social workers enquired with the prison authorities the release of the prisoners and likewise telephonically informed and coordinated with the families about his/her release.

• Initially only under trial prisoners were released on interim bail while subsequently convict prisoners were also released on parole.

• Organization arranged for transport and thus more than 70 prisoners hailing from 3-4 districts (Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune, etc) were helped to reach home safely. In cases where the prisoners were not permitted to enter their respective villages, the organization coordinated with the respective authorities and helped the prisoners.

• Provided shelter to 2 prisoners in the Rehabilitation Center of the organization as they hailed from other states.

• Some of the families felt the released prisoners were additional burden on them, as they were living a hand to mouth existence. So the organization supported such families with cash transfer of Rs.2000/- through Google Pay, ration support, legal aid.

• Some ration kits were delivered to the homes of the families.

• As 45 days parole was reaching its end, the prison authorities had no contact number of the released convict prisoners. In such circumstances, the organization coordinated with prison authorities and informed the released prisoners about their parole having been extended to another one month.

• Total about 500 families were helped by the organization during this period.

• Help was also extended to prisoners with regard to connecting them with their advocates for release on bail.

Presentation on “Rehabilitation of prisoners and their families in Karnataka”Presenter: Shri Rabbi Jayakaran, Founder, Peacemakers, Karnataka

Rehabilitation intervention in the prison set-up is possible only in collaboration and partnership with the prison officials and the Prison department. We involve the prison staff in planning, implementation and review through consultations, discussions and feedback.

The success for our innovative intervention models can be attributed to

1 Integrating peer leadership model- This strategy enables the prisoners to develop self-belief and confidence, trust, sense of responsibility & accountability and sense of purpose and meaning.

2 Collaboration with prison officers.

Peer-leadership model & COVID-19 situation

Especially, in the COVID-19 situation where NGOs and visitors are not allowed entry into the prison, the prison officers gave us a feedback that the participants of PEHEL programs have been continuing some

of the activities regularly even in the absence of the PEHEL team.

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PEHEL Approach & Model of Psycho-social Intervention

Gender & Empowerment, Life and Livelihood Skills Training Integrating Mental Health Wellness & Recovery. Focusing on the six-levels of wellness: Physical Wellness, Emotional Wellness, Intellectual Wellness, Social Wellness, Occupational Wellness and Spiritual Wellness

Four Innovative Interventions

1 Mental Health & Wellness Recovery – WOMEN @ TUMKURU (ongoing in Bengaluru only now) - Facilitate self-discovery, gender & human rights education, and empowerment through life skills training. Women are trained in livelihood skills training and are producing saree-bags from discarded sarees, embroidery on prison sarees and kanchi-cotton sarees, embroidery on cushion covers and journal covers.

2 Preparation for Release – ROOPANTARA (put on hold due to permissions)

3 Rehabilitation of prisoners with psychiatric illness – SAHAYANA (ongoing)

4 Rehabilitation of young adult under trials – MUSIC SCHOOL & LIFESKILLS (ongoing)- It is a unique program that has given the young adult prisoners an opportunity to safely channelize their time, anger and frustration, constructively and connect positively with others. These students participate in a life-skills program that facilitates self-understanding, gender rights, social analysis and social skills

Presentation on “Disaster Preparedness in prisons during the pandemic”Presenter: Ms. Cecilia Davies, Social Worker & Advocate

In the light of such shockingly intense impact (COVID-19), the question of disaster preparedness in prisons has been a lost cause in nations across the world, India being no exception. Prisons all across the country were the first to shut shop and ban any form of entry from the outside particularly visits from families or lawyers of the inmates. Several prisons across the country have held fort for a long long time before succumbing to the impact of the virus. The credit of holding off for this long, goes exclusively to the prison authorities, who in very few instances have been backed by the local government support. However, what one needs to consider is the absolutely dismal performance of the Courts.

When an inmate is sent to the prison, they are technically placed in “judicial custody”. While the practical care of the inmates lies in the hands of the state administration, it is the Courts that have the over-arching responsibility of those placed in their custody. Unfortunately, it was not until lawyers knocked on the doors of the Court, that the Courts’ attention was drawn towards dealing with the prisons and the pandemic. The Courts passed on the responsibility to High Powered Committees, with a mandate for release and a few other areas of supervision. The performance of the High Powered Committees have been found wanting. Number of inmates released as per the Court’s mandate have not made any great dent in the existing overcrowded prison populations across the country; setting up of temporary jails has come too late in the day, with the new admissions, particularly of the under trials, even from containment zones lodged in judicial custody, thus increasing the risk of infection in a place that is already set and ripe for quick spread.

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In the most normal of times, it is no secret that prisons are hotspots for diseases that spread easily. The high incidence of even skin infections in prisons across the country, are the yardstick for easy spread of infections. This is further augmented by the fact that only 4.3% of the overall prison budgets are directed towards meeting health care needs. In the light of the pandemic, there has been no increase in the health care budget, leaving one wondering, how the concerned authorities are coping with the pandemic both for the inmates as well as for themselves as custodians. It is high time that the powers that be, particularly the Courts stop using the prisons as a stop gap solution to deal with issues that find no answers behind prison walls.

The final nail in the coffin as far as preparedness is concerned is that the National Disaster Management Policy has no exclusive mention of any plans to deal with disasters in prisons or other closed institutions. Except for coordination with the local district authorities, there is nothing at all either in terms of mitigation, preparedness or post disaster management for prisons. This is an area of work that is currently being explored and worked upon by the resource person together with her mentor Prof. Vijay Raghavan. One can only hope that once the tide has passed, not too many lives would be lost and we do better from the lessons learnt from this pandemic.

Presentation on “Work done during COVID-19 pandemic”Presenter: Shri K. R. Raja, Founder & Executive Director, Global Network for Equality Work done by the organization during the lockdown periodDuring the period of COVID-19 and the nation-wide lockdown, we supported more than 150 children (consisting of 67 families of prisoners) with financial support of Rs.3,000/- each family during the months of April and May 2020. We have kept all our children engaged in indoor activities such as writing every day 5 English words and forming a sentence with it, doing indoor physical exercise, attending various online sessions and so on. Many children were worried about their incarcerated parents and their safety in the prison due to the spread of the virus inside the prisons. So we provided emotional counseling to all of them by explaining about the safety measures taken by the Tamil Nadu Prison Department,

We also wrote representation and request letters to the prison department about the video call interviews of the advocates with the prisoners, extended parole for life convicts, and also wrote about the plights of aged/sick prisoners’ condition who suffer from co-morbid health complications at the time of coronavirus spread and how they could be the most vulnerable group for contracting the virus. Thus, we sought premature release of these aged/sick prisoners.

We have also given opportunities to the wives of the prisoners to stitch face masks for the children of government schools and transparent face masks for children with hearing defect and speech impairment of the special schools.

Challenges Faced During the Pandemic

• The sudden release of prisoners from prison resulted in a mass exodus from prison but society was not ready as there was no contingency plan of the government at the local level.

• Processed through the criminal justice system already encounter a degree of stigma. It makes

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getting them help even more difficult.

• As some of them do not have permanent shelters, reaching out to them or arranging shelter is a challenge (post-release on bail).

• Lack of vehicles and public transport being shut.

• Few inmates had no money to reach their homes, while some who managed to reach home found their families with no resources or means to meet daily needs.

• The strict Corona guidelines, social distancing, lockdown measures and social stigma attached to the released inmates resulted in no work options, loss of jobs and even uncertainty of earning.

• Debts on the families doubled and inmates were not able to pay house rents.

• Some of them do not have bank accounts, it made direct transfer, impossible for such clients.

• No employment and uncertainty about the future lead to psychological issues.

• Cases of domestic violence and abuse have also been reported.

• School closures added to the burden of the children on families and worry of their future added to their woes.

• Children in high risk communities with no school became more vulnerable to getting involved in anti-social activities.

• Lack of documents to avail existing schemes and benefits.

• Initially due to public safety protocols, being out was an issue as police was not aware of organization’s interventions.

• Personal safety versus the immediate needs of the released prison inmates.

• Lack of availability of food and water for the team on the field.

Dr. Vijay Raghavan finally concluded this session by stating that the presentations made by the NGOs related to their rehabilitation work with prisoners in the COVID-19 context is an eye-opener towards the great work done by them There is a lack of follow-up post-release as it is important to stay in touch with the released inmates. In this regard, the prison department should work in close coordination with the NGOs.

Presentations by prison officialsShri Jagjit Singh, IG (Prisons), Haryana

• In March 2020, the prison population was about 108% and as per the HPC guidelines about 5500-6000 prisoners were released on interim bail and parole and thus the present prison population is about 80-85%. Appreciated work being done by the HPC as they are conducting regular meetings.

• There are online meetings and counselling conducted by magistrates also.

• Since no NGOs are visiting, the prison officials are providing regular counselling to the prisoners to help maintain their mental balance.

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• Due to no mulakat with their families, the prisoners have been provided the facility to communicate with their families and advocates telephonically and also through video calling.

• A good initiative taken by the prison officials who with the help of inmates prepared 1.5 lakh masks which were given to the health department.

• Sanitizers and PPE kits were also prepared in the prisons and supplied to all the prisoners.

• Prison department in collaboration with the district administration distributed 15,000-20,000 food kits to the needy outside. While cooked meals prepared by the prisoners with the food material provided by the district administration were distributed by the NGOs to the needy people outside.

• At the prevention level, awareness has been created about COVID-19 among the prisoners. And the administration is alert and taking precautions to ensure that there is no spread of the virus inside the prisons.

• COVID-19 test is done of all new admissions. Isolation wards have been created in all the prisons. If a new admission is tested positive then they are quarantined for 14 days in the isolation wards.

• All the positive cases have recovered and presently there are no positive cases.

• Special parole has been granted to eligible convict prisoners.

• Transportation was provided to the released prisoners in reaching home safely. Those hailing from local areas were helped in contacting their families who came and took the prisoners home. Thus, no prisoner faced any difficulty in reaching home.

• Health officials are also regularly visiting the prisons.

• The prison authorities are regularly doing many programmes with the help of India Vision Foundation. And during their recent 25 years celebrations, 5 prisoners had staged performances which were appreciated world-wide.

• In the Gurugram Central Prison, one of prison inmate has helped develop the software for the mulakat system which is presently operational.

Ms. Shefali Tiwari, Superintendent, Narsingpur Central Prison, Madhya Pradesh

• An empathetic attitude is most important to run the prisons. The prison officials need training on rehabilitation and to develop their skills, as their role is to maintain law and order. Prison officials can prepare an inmate for rehabilitation, but they cannot rehabilitate them.

• Presently, our roles have shifted from prison officers to health care officers due to our handling of the medical needs of the prisoners.

• More than 5000 inmates have been released on parole and interim bail.

• Although the overcrowding in prisons has reduced, another problem is the increase in the under trial population due to the courts not functioning and no proceedings taking place.

• Psychological counselling is being provided to the prisoners through the television media.

• Since mulakats have been stopped, the prisoners have been provided the facility of telephonically communicating with the families.

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• And recently, we have secured permission from the DGP to conduct video calling/virtual meetings between the prisoners and their family members.

• For the rehabilitation of the inmates, it is important is to focus on education and family bonding of the inmates.

• There is a need for NGOs who can provide counselling to inmates, find out the inmates’ skills and interest areas, conduct trainings and help in giving employment and financial aid. It is important to make a holistic rehabilitation plan.

• There is no data available of the rehabilitated prisoners and how the skills provided in prison have been used by the prisoners after their release.

• There is a recent case of an inmate who had undergone the radio jockey training in prison. On his release from the prison, he secured a job for sound recording.

• In future, the prison plans to start online computer class trainings for the prisoners.

• There is need for a reformative environment inside prisons.

• The open air camp of Sanganer in Rajasthan is a progressive step. The same model is depicted in Madhya Pradesh where prisoners live in a cottage, they go for work outside and return in the evening.

Ms. Anita Rai, Superintendent, Bengaluru Central Prison

• Similar interventions are being carried out in Bengaluru Central Prison as stated by the prison officials of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

• The COVID-19 situation is stressful for the inmates and they are expanding prison call systems and connecting with families of prisoners.

• They are using the radio media for conducting awareness programmes for the prison inmates.

The moderator of this session Dr. Upneet Lalli concluded the sessions by praising all the prison officials who are “Captains of Life”. She appreciated the Tihar model of rehabilitation.

Open House sessionA brief presentation by Shri Jai Gopal, Superintendent, Nahan Prison, Himachal Pradesh

• The prison population in the state is quite small. A new initiative named “Har Haath Ko Kaam” has been initiated for the rehabilitation of prisoners. The prisoners of semi-open prisons go out of the prison for work daily.

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Brief presentation by Prayas on the findings of the Rapid Needs Assessment Survey conducted during the lockdown period

• Many difficulties were encountered by the released prisoners to get back home with no money in hand nor any arrangements made to reach them home.

• On reaching home, since the families were already in dire financial crisis due to lack of employment and cash, some of them were treated as a burden to the family.

• The families who were migrants preferred to return back to their native places due to no employment, no money in hand to pay the house rent, food expenses etc.

• Due to the spread of the Corona virus in the prison, the family members were anxious about their incarcerated relatives.

• With one parent in prison, it was difficult for the other parent to manage the children at home due to the various constraints of the lockdown – wearing of masks, no going out of the house, no constructive engagement inside the house, lack of sufficient food, incapability to meet the demands of the children, etc

• Due to lack of the required infrastructure for accessing the internet, the families faced difficulty with regard to the online classes for the children.

• Due to insecurity with regard to employment, many clients were thinking of taking up self-employment for which they were seeking Prayas’ help.

• In some cases, children were attending private schools and Prayas was supporting with the school fees and other school accessories. But in cases, where the families were managing these expenses, now due to the pandemic, they requested assistance from Prayas with regard to their children’s education.

• Many were unable to access the government special schemes due to lack of awareness of the same, or due to lack of the required citizenship rights documents, etc.

Concluding Session

Dr Upneet Lalli, Dy. Director, ICA, and Dr Vijay Raghavan, Director, Prayas concluded the session

• The panel thanked the participants for active participation. The webinar has helped to focus on pertinent issues.

• The main focus must be to understand the plight of prisoners and bring policy level changes. The policy framework should include the rehabilitation plan for inmates.

• There is a need to encourage partnerships between prison and civil society as prison is not isolated, but it is part of society.

Recommendations for Rehabilitation and Reintegration of prisoners

• Rehabilitation covers wide area of activities in prisons and the process should start from the entry of the prisoner inside prison. The prison administration should particularly focus on three core areas i.e. education, vocational and work programmes inside the prison.

• Assessment and treatment programs should be conducted inside prison to study individual inmates, classification as per interests and assessing their educational qualifications, needs, factors that led to crime and addiction issues.

• Books and newspapers should be provided to prisoners through prison libraries, which can be linked with the district libraries for lending books and magazines.

• There should be constructive activities in prisons in order to normalize the environment. During the present pandemic, online skills training could be imparted to them through the assistance of National Skill Development Corporation. Thus, there is a need to equip the prisoners with skills during their stay in the prison for which NGOs, educational institutions, legal aid institutions can help out.

• Prison Administration should provide decent wages to the prisoners for the work done by them.

• Rehabilitation and social reintegration is possible by positive engagement between staff and prisoners and promoting the contacts of inmates with their family and community.

• Prison department should encourage video conferencing and video calling facility (virtual meetings between the prison inmates and their family members).

• Both physical and mental health of prisoners and staff needs to be in focus. Meditation camps should be conducted inside prison. Psychologists/Counselors and Social Workers should be attached with each prison to provide for counseling services and to take care of the mental health of prison inmates.

• On-line counseling sessions for managing the stress and mental health needs of the prisoners can be arranged by the prison department with various experts. The prison authorities can identify cases that need urgent counseling (COVID-19) and refer them to the social workers which could be provided to the inmates through telephonic communication.

• There is a need for developing partnership with community based organizations workings for prisoners’ rehabilitation. Involvement of other stakeholders both Government and NGOs is essential to the reintegration process. A directory of NGOs engaged in the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners may be made available to state prison department. Community Based Organizations (CBOs) can make informative videos related to various government schemes to help create awareness and knowledge to avail the benefits of the schemes.

• Prisoners being released during this period should be given COVID-19 Free Certificate and also facilitation of transport to their homes should be undertaken. In the absence of Halfway Homes, it is important to identify a temporary space which can accommodate released prisoners till they reach home.

• Post-release support for people leaving prison:

Release plans should be made for each person released from prison. This should include, at a

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minimum: housing, facilitating transport, financial support, measures to ensure personal safety especially for women and children, and links with community-based support organizations.

People leaving prison should be recognized as a vulnerable group for the purposes of COVID-19 planning and be given priority access to any available services including housing support. They should be given ration kit at the time of their release.

Emergency preparedness and response plans should be developed or enhanced to include post-release support for persons released from detention.

• A rehabilitation grant should be provided to the prisoners at the time of release so that they are able to start their own work programmes

• District Administration can take the help of Sarpanch/Talati to link schemes with the released prisoners and their families.

• District Legal Services Authority should be a nodal agency between the prison department and district administration to help link released prisoners and their families to the various welfare schemes. Thus, the families would get some relief from their crisis situation.

• District Child Protection Unit and Probation Officer should plan for children of prisoners living outside.

• The system of open and semi-open prisons which has been running very successfully in some of the states, needs to be started in other states as well.

• India should implement Doha Declaration of United Nation Congress on crime prevention and criminal justice.

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Annexure IAbout the Resource Persons / Organisations

Institute of Correctional Administration, Chandigarh

The Institute of Correctional Administration (ICA), Chandigarh, started functioning from the year 1989 with full financial assistance from the Centre. The Institute is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act and has its own Board of Management headed by Additional Secretary (CS), Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. The Director of the Institute is the Home Secretary, U.T., Chandigarh. The ICA imparts training to prison personnel from all over India as well as to police personnel of Himachal Pradesh, Union Territories and Chandigarh. It has also recently started training programmes on Human Rights and Women's Rights for paramilitary forces.

The Institute has so far organized 237 training courses both for prison and police officers apart from holding a number of symposia, seminars, panel discussions on Prison Reforms, Human Rights, etc. Hon'ble High Court judges, university professors from Psychology, Sociology, Criminology, Law, Psychiatry and Jail Administrators have been participating as guest faculty in the training programmes of the Institute. The training courses being organized by the Institute not only generate a positive orientation in the participants about the correctional philosophy and programmes, they tend to equip the participants with skills and techniques of correction. The Institute has also undertaken various research projects on Prison Administration and Human Rights.

Prayas

Prayas is a pioneering social work demonstration project of the Centre for Criminology and Justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, established as a Field Action Project in 1990. Placement of social work students doing their M.A. in Social Work from the Department of Criminology and Correctional Administration (now the Centre for Criminology and Justice) at TISS in prisons, police stations, and courts from 1985 onwards by Dr Sanober Sahni, a faculty in the Department and now Project Advisor, Prayas, led to conceiving the idea of starting a full-time project focusing on social work intervention in the Criminal Justice System. Her partner in this venture was Prof. Vijay Raghavan, who had graduated from TISS in 1989, and the work of Prayas was initiated in Mumbai Central Prison in 1990. With the evolution of newer programmes, the leadership in Prayas has been consciously developed to foster participative decision-making processes, group accountability mechanisms and has led to a second rung of leadership holding key positions, including the Joint Project Director, Dr. Sharon Menezes.

Prayas’s focus is on service delivery, networking, training, research and documentation, and policy change with respect to the custodial/institutional rights and rehabilitation of socio-economically vulnerable individuals and groups who come into direct contact with the Indian Criminal Justice System (CJS). To this end, permission to visit criminal justice or custodial institutions and interact with persons detained or confined in police stations, prisons and government residential institutions in Maharashtra and Gujarat has been obtained from the Departments of Prisons and Women and Child Development.

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Sahara Charitable Trust

Sahara Charitable Trust has its presence in the prisons of Mumbai and Thane districts. The vision of Sahaara is fulfilling dreams of the vulnerable and marginalized in society. They work with poor migrants. COVID-19 has affected the poor vulnerable migrants the most.

Sahaara is working for the past 26 years. The beneficiaries include CSWs (red light areas),

Children (red light areas & Government Homes) and Under trials (Mumbai Prisons focusing upon Remedial Education, Women Empowerment, Safe Home Operations, Rehabilitation & Reintegration. They are working in Mumbai prisons for the past 23 years since 1997 providing services like counselling, legal aid, medical camps, emergency family support, balwadi for children inside prison, rehabilitation and reintegration services.

The organization has started a Computer center in Mumbai Central Prison and plans to have 3 Computer Centers in the next 3 years in other prisons also. They have also helped develop mulakat software in Mumbai Central Prison. Since 2016, the organisation has been able to impact over 4000 prisoners with their various baskets of services.

India Vision Foundation

Founded in 1994, India Vision Foundation is a voluntary non-profit, non-governmental organization registered as a Trust in India by Dr. Kiran Bedi, the first lady IPS (Indian Police Services) of India.

2019 marked the 25 years of the Foundation’s journey, and today the Foundation is working in the prisons of 5 States namely Delhi (Tihar&Mandoli), Haryana (Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonepat, Rohtak & Ambala), Uttar Pradesh (Dasna & Kasna), Punjab (Amritsar) and Maharashtra (Yerwada). India Vision Foundation is touching more than 3000 lives every day through projects both inside as well as outside prison; striving hard to give a new hope to the prison inmates and their families, especially children through positive reinforcement, education and values that not only help them to become responsible and conscientious citizens of the society. The Foundation has successfully reached out to more than 2, 50,000 beneficiaries under its Prison Reforms and Rural Development project.

VARHAD

Since last 18 years, VARHAD is dedicatedly working for the human rights, crime prevention, reformation and dignity of the prisoners in custody and their re-integration with their families as well as society. Their contribution in the field of prison reforms and human rights is immensely recognized by many organizations at national and international levels apart from the administration & government. The organization began its work for the rehabilitation of the released prisoners, which expanded later on for prisoners’ care while they are in custody, and reintegration of convicts and their families into the society by minimizing the feeling of prison-stigma. Now, through its various projects in the field of eradicating the breeding of crime, VARHAD has become one of the most prominent Indian organizations working in this field.

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Peacemakers

Peacemakers is a registered charitable Trust, working on issues of constructive conflict resolution skills, peace building and restorative justice. It also conducts workshops and seminar for youth and NGOs in peace building and conflict transformation; teach peace & conflict resolution studies for undergraduates at a University in Bangalore; and network with peace builders and conflict transformation practitioners.

PEHEL-Criminal Justice Initiatives is one of the direct interventions with prison inmates. PEHEL was initiated by TISS Fellows Ms. Andria Lobo and Ms. Ashmira in 2013 and worked with women inmates at the Bengaluru Central Jail, Bengaluru and at the Women Central Prison at Tumkuru. Since 2016, Peacemakers is continuing the intervention with women and extended to work with mentally ill patients (male inmates) and young adults (18 to 25 yrs age group male).

Ms. Cecilia Davies

Ms Cecilia Davies is an alumni of the Department of Criminology and Correction Administration, at TISS, Mumbai. Her professional journey has been to various parts of the country and across various spaces both in rural and urban settings in the development sector. A large part of her experience has been related to the Criminal Justice System, particularly prisons and prisoners in Karnataka. She has been an independent consultant for organizations working in the Criminal Justice System, helping with their strategic planning, documentation, review, evaluation, etc. Currently, she works in an individual capacity, with prisoners across Karnataka with providing legal support, facilitating rehabilitation and advocating for a change in the premature release of prisoners. She is also engaged as a Fellow from the lawyers cluster, with the School for Democracy, Rajasthan. Her Fellowship entails working on advocating for a rights-based, transparent and foolproof system for the premature release process in Karnataka. She is also one of the founding members of a loose network called Prisons Forum, consisting of individuals and organizations interested in taking up prison, related issues in the state.

Global Network for Equality

Global Network for Equality is based in Tamil Nadu and has been providing educational scholarships for the children of crime victims since the past four years. Through their Edu-Gate Scholarship Programs more than 500 children have benefitted during these years. Apart from offering the scholarship, they admit the children into residential schools where they pay the fees and mess charges. These children are those who are in the care of their old grandparents who are unable to take care of them. Presently, 37 students are pursuing college education through the support of the organization.

Besides this, the organization in involved in filing several PILs on the subject of prison reforms and rehabilitation of the prisoners – like wages of the prisoners, setting up of a Women Open Air Prison,proper medical treatment for psychiatric ill prisoners, child friendly interview hall in every prison where the children can meet the incarcerated parent without trauma, etc.

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Annexure II List of participants

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