Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons

— John Ruskin

Jail is probably the only place one does not wish to visit despite the free stay, free food and free medical care. However, these are the only freebies one gets.

The freedom to go out and live in the world is denied. And this is the reason why jails are unwelcome places with dreaded criminals and terrorists calling the shots. They have now started vociferously and at times violently demanding spicy food and assaulting jail officials and threatening other inmates.

These convicts often mark their presence by repeatedly disobeying the jail authorities and violating the rules. The trend probably began with Ajmal Kasab, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused who demanded that he be served mutton biriyani and basmati rice in jail.

This appears to have been the inspiration for every anti-social element and hard-core criminal housed in state jails. High profile Thadiyantaveedu Naseer, the suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative accused in the 2008 Bengaluru blasts and the Kalamassery bus burning case, and his close aides have wreaked havoc in every jail, particularly in the central jails in Kannur and Viyyur and the Kakkanad sub-jail.

His demands vary from a biriyani to a separate cell. The terror accused also raised slogans and threatened officers. Many times he reportedly turned other prisoners against jail officials and created turmoil in the jail.

Last week, two Italian marines, aboard the Italian vessel Enrica Lexie, accused of killing two Indian fishermen and lodged in Thiruvananthapuram central jail, refused to enter their cell. The latest to join the fray is Govindachamy, the single-handed beggar who pushed a young girl called Soumya out of a train after raping her.

The girl later died in hospital but Govindachamy, who was housed in Kannur central jail, began a hunger strike on March 10 demanding chicken biriyani. The accused, who is facing the death sentence, wanted a transfer to the Poojappura jail. A suicide attempt was also part of the drama he performed in his cell.

The very next day he ended the strike, assaulted a jail warden and destroyed the camera in the tenth block cell. Not satisfied with this, he splashed the urine he had collected in a pot given to him on the jail officials. Kannur central jail, which comes second after Poojappura interns of the number of inmates, has been ‘renowned’ for fights amongst political prisoners.

There were over 12 cases of violence reported there in the last two years. There are over 6,861 persons lodged in 50 jails in the state, including two women’s prisons and two open jails.

However, jail officials said that these revolting tendencies could not be viewed as trends. “These are just isolated incidents and can’t be seen as revolts or situations of unrest. We will take care of these things and ensure that prisoners are not violating the rules,” said the deputy inspector-general of prisons, H. Gopakumar.

But several jail wardens say that this type of unrest is increasing among inmates as they are confident that they can muster the support of outfits in and outside jails and also human rights’ activists.
“Many, especially political and high profile prisoners, get support from outside agencies. This makes them behave as if they were immune to all punishment. This trend is on the rise among educated criminals,” said a top official in Poojappura.

According to him, one-time criminals are less dangerous and do not resort to violence like habitual offenders and anti-social elements.

And jail officials also admit that they are helpless as human rights activists intervene and make a big fuss about this. “These tendencies are usually high among habitual criminals as they have no regard for society. So, in a closed community like a prison, the chances of these criminals creating problems are very high.

They also get undue attention through the media so they use violence as a tool for manipulation,” says Kochi-based psychologist, Dr C.J. John. He also warned that if the jail authorities gave in to these criminal tendencies, this violent culture would gradually begin percolating down to other prisoners as well.