BERHAMPUR: Students of psychology from BJB College, Bhubaneswar, mingled with prisoners of the Berhampur circle jail to get first hand information about their mental state.

The Head of the Department, Sadashiv Mohapatra, said the students were on a three-day study tour to the jail from February 17 to complete their project for the degree course. For these 29 students, mostly girls, it was the first time experience to be inside a jail and meeting convicted criminals. But after meeting the prisoners the psychology students had a changed mind.

"My mind was filled with fear and apprehensions before I met these prisoners but after interacting with them I found them to normal human beings like us," said Suchismita Swain, a student of the project.

IQ assessment

Teacher and clinical psychologist, Dhaneswar Sahu, also accompanied the students. Students had one-to-one interaction with prisoners to assess their IQ level and mental status through interactive questionnaires. Many did not know the person being interviewed by them is serving life sentence for some gruesome murder like Kiran Bedi, the youth who killed two members of a bangle trader's family at Puri.

Tight security

After taking data most of the students felt that situation and environment had prompted most of the prisoners to become violent.

But prison officials were too protective.

The Jail Superintendent, Dharanidhar Das, and the jailer, Ramchandra Nayak, were monitoring the proceedings.

There was tight security around the closed dining hall where prisoners were interacting with students.

Dilip Nayak, a prisoner serving life sentence, said this interaction with students surely gave mental solace to the prisoners.

As per the plans, the students and prisoners would have a joint cultural programme inside the jail premises on Monday after their academic work gets completed.

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