Jail Must Act As Reform House For Inmates: Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday called for strict implementation of jail manual in state prisons and spoke in favour of reformative nature of jail punishment as referenced in the original Prisons Act.

"We have to establish prisons as places for reform. Every necessary step should be taken for this," Adityanath said while reviewing prison condition in a meeting. "At present, the Jail Act 1894 and the Prisoners Act 1900 are applicable in relation to jails and prisoners lodged in them. Both these laws are from before independence. Many of their provisions are in favour of the changing environment and the reformative ideology of rehabilitation of prisoners," he said.  

"The purpose of the Prisons Act is to keep criminals in jail in a disciplined manner, but we have to focus on reformation and rehabilitation. Keeping in view the future, we need to bring new laws," he added.

Adityanath said that aspects of jail such as security of prisoners, the way they are treated, heeding to their complaints, provision of separate accommodation for women and transgender, and formation of a prison development board, should be implemented strictly in jails. The CM said that high-security barracks should be prepared for hardened criminals and terrorists who pose a big threat to the country and society.

He said that at present the entry and exit of prisoners in the prisons of the state is being done through e-prison portal, which is being further bolstered with the use of Prisoners Information Management System, Visitor Management System, E-custody Certificate, and Police Intelligence System.

Jails across the state are equipped with more than 4,200 CCTV cameras, which constantly send feeds and alerts to the 'videowalls' installed in the headquarters. Strictest punishment should be kept for inmates found in possession of banned items like mobile phones, the CM said.