APPROACHES FOR PRISON REFORMS IN INDIA

“It is not the prisoners that need reformation. It is the prisons.” -Oscar Wilde. At the initial stages, prisons were merely places of detention where the wrongdoers were detained until the trial was completed or execution of the latter was carried out. However, with the passage of time, the philosophy of punishment underwent a change throughout the nations. At the international level, treatment of prisoners was guided by the humanitarian principles which India supported. Thus, in India, the modern philosophy of punishment is reflected by a mixture of deterrence, preventive and reformative theories together. By keeping in mind all three objectives of punishment, efforts were made to reform the prison system through various approaches. The long journey of prison reform movement in India began under the British Government with the appointment of the first Law Commission followed by various Committees on prison reforms, enactment of laws and the efforts of government which continues with the goal of modernizing the overall prison system. This paper presented the major contributions made towards the reformation of Indian prison system at the international to national level.