Probe report brings out appalling condition in Viyyur jail

By T. Ramavarman

THRISSUR, DEC. 16. A deeply disturbing picture about the appalling conditions prevailing in the Viyyur Central Prison here has been brought by the enquiries conducted by three judicial officers in Thrissur.

The enquiries were conducted by the district and sessions judge, Mr K Padmanabhan Nair, the judicial magistrate of first class III, Mr P M Abdul Sathar and the judicial magistrate of first class I, Mr Cherian Kuriakkose following reports of clashes in the jail early this year and they have brought out some of the basic lacunae in the prison set-up here.

Even though the enquiries were mainly confined to the Viyyur Central prison, the vivid pictures of atrocities and criminal activities that the reports bring out will be certainly relevant in any attempts to understand the abominable conditions prevailing in the four walls of the jails in Kerala and elsewhere also.

The suggestions that these judicial officers have made after in- depth investigations and analyses may also find applications in any initiatives to improve the conditions within the jails across the country.

In fact, Mr Kuriakkose in his report reproduces an eloquent quotation from the May 5 issue of Harijan wherein the Mahatma Gandhi had said, ``What should our jails be like in the Free India? All the criminals should be treated as patients and the jails should be hospitals admitting the class of patients for treatment and cure. No one commits crimes for the fun of it. It is a sign of the diseased mind. The causes of the particular disease should be investigated and removed.''

``There need not have palatial buildings when jails become hospitals. No country can afford that, much less can a poor country like India. But the outlook of the jail staff should be that of physicians and nurses in a hospital. The prisoners should feel that they are their friends. They are there to help them to regain their mental health and not to harass them in anyway. The Government has to issue necessary orders, but meanwhile the jail staff can do, not a little, to humanise their administration.''

Winding up this quotation, Mr Kuriakkose in his report said, ``I must confess that during my visits to the jail I was unable to see that any of the wishes of the Father of the Nation could be fulfilled, even after half a century is over. The present intramural institutionalisation of an offender has proved to have done much harm than good especially in the case of short-termers as they come out after their detention period with a diploma in crime.''

Mr Kuriakkose said on a close talk during his jail visit the under trial inmates provided ``blood-curdling and hair-raising information of atrocities, cruelties and beastly activities during the so-called `Judicial Custody', where the dividing line between animality and civility is lost to view.''

``The interview with a few prisoners and from the missives they have handed over to me during my visits have left an indelible impression in my mind, of glaring accounts of barbarity committed by the public servants in uniform on the under trail prisoners, giving rise to the phenomenon of internal terrorism in jail', he said.

According to him some of the `privileged inmates' use the jail as congenial office for hatching out future criminal plots. ``In Viyyur jail there is adequate facility for criminals to come into contact with one another and to establish cooperation for their future activities.''

``I could gather from the prisoners that there are certain groups within the jail officers with each group having close connections with a particular gang of criminals. It is alleged that such officers receive favours from politicians who support the narcotic criminal gangs by getting lucrative postings of their choice. In return they have to fill the coffers of their political bosses.''

``The physical comforts of certain hired criminals are being looked after by outside agencies who are in league with a certain group of prison officials whose palms are greased sufficiently,'' the report said.

The findings of the magistrate assume a special significance in the wake of the reports that the recent sensational murder of one of the criminal gang leader, Mr Durgaprasad in the heart of the city just after sunset was a sequel to the developments in the Viyyur jail. Also there were reports that some of the influential people including politicians and police officers were using Mr Durgaprasad for their money laundering operations.

Emphasising that the jail authorities mete out favourable treatment to select inmates in the jail, Mr Kuriakkose said ``Gang-based criminals are allegedly a major source of hush money earnings for a section of jail authorities and the facilities extended to the such favoured criminals range from choice food to liquor and even drugs.''

In fact, there were reports and even court cases of the jail inmates having indulged in drug abuse, but it would be difficult to believe that drug can find its way to the four-walls of the prison without the connivance of the authorities there.

Coming down heavily on the practise of permitting the under trials and hard-core criminals to mix with each other, Mr Kuriakkose said, ``Most of the under trial prisoners are victims of circumstances. Prisons are to be recognised as centres of correctional treatment, where major emphasis should be on the reeducation and reformation of the offender.. Humanness demands that the under trial prisoners get help to put their life back together when they leave the prison.''

The magistrate said during his visit to the jail on July 13 last one under trial prisoner, Baburaj was seen kept in the isolation cell. Even though the jail authorities had clarified that he was being kept in the isolation cell, the prisoner himself complained that he was physically manhandled on admission and was being put in the cell for reasons unknown to him.

But when the magistrate visited the jail on the next day unannounced, he found Mr Baburaj was still being kept in the isolation cell itself in spite of the fact jail authorities were aware that such a gross violation of human rights had come to the notice of a judicial officer having the jurisdiction to take cognizance of the illegal isolation of the prisoner.

The magistrate said there were wide-spread reports of sexual harassment of the under trial prisoners in Viyyur. There are also reports of the sexual harassment of the lady visitors who come to the jail to meet their relatives among the jail inmates. The jail staff also extort money from the visitors.

Referring to the inadequacy of medical facilities in the jail the magistrate said, there were many complaints of the sick prisoners not being admitted to the jail hospital even though beds were vacant there. ``The jail doctor has, it is complained, never visited the individual cells of barracks during the past one year.''

Pointing out that lack of accommodation was major problem of Viyyur prison, the magistrate said, the rooms in certain blocks which are supposed to house only two persons are often filled up with three and at times four prisoners.

Conceding that inspection by jail inspectors prove futile on most occasions, he said the prisoners are not able to give complaints on such inspection visits because the jail staff accompany the superiors during the time of inspection. Also, the complaints given by the inmates are referred back to the officials in charge of the jail calling for their remarks. This gives ample scope for retaliatory measures by the jail staff against the complaining inmates.

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