PROJECT NHRC 2014
As human rights organization, the Social Justice welfare believes it is imperative to work on prisoners’ rights, because, in order to reduce crime, society must take a two-pronged approach to solve their problems. First of all, it must work to counter the socio-economic conditions that contribute to crime. The work in prisons shows that most of the prisoners come from poor and vulnerable communities. And secondly, society must extend all possible help and cooperation to enable an offender to return to the community from which she or he belonged as a law-abiding citizen. This must include a programme for the treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners. Working out systematic procedures, the government can delegate some basic functions of treatment to community groups and volunteers.
With this aim in view, the HR undertook following activities towards ensuring rights to the prisoners:
Due to delays in procedures, many under-trials spend more time in prison than they would have had to had they been convicted. In an effort to ensure the right of every individual to fair trial, the SOCIAL JUSTICE set up a system of providing free legal aid to prisoners. It was given permission to start work in jails to facilitate the release of under-trial prisoners accused of bailable offences.
The SJ realized that the main reason for bailable prisoners remaining behind the bars is because of their inability to procure a surety or a bail. Most of these prisoners are poor and cannot produce bail. The SJ introduced the concept of personal bond as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court to enable the poor prisoners to pay bail. Initially, the lower judiciary resisted the effort, but today the concept is well accepted. In many cases, judges themselves ask lawyers to file a personal bond application for those in need.
The SOCIAL JUSTICE was invited by MP jail minister to assist in the jail reforms process. It initiated a task force comprising of people from jail, lawyers and the judiciary. The task force submitted a report on the possibility of jail reforms in MP. Several of the recommendations of the committee are being implemented today, including the Lok Adalats, mobile courts, availability of free legal aid, and so on.
The jail staff was sensitized to the issue of under-trials and advised of possible remedies. During an interaction with the jabalpur jail superintendent, the SOCIAL JUSTICE was told that prison worked to identify prisoners who kept languishing in the prison longer than their due time. These cases were brought to the notice of the committee which is supposed to visit the jail every month to assess overcrowding.
Paralegal Training in Prisons - RIGHTS
The concept of paralegal training in prisons came from the realization of the difficulties faced by prisoners in getting legal support. To address this need, the SOCIAL JUSTICE developed a paralegal training programme in prisons, so that persons from within the prison can look after the legal needs of other prisoners. The programme was sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
The main objectives of the programme was to:
Raise awareness regarding law and prisoners’ rights
Raise awareness among prisoners
Develop skill of filling up bail/bond application forms for themselves and others
Perform the role of a prisoner’s rights watch agency by establishing a linkage between the working group on prisoner’s rights, the SOCIAL JUSTICE and the prison
Empower prisoners to challenge the situations of injustice and encroachment of rights inside the prison
Implement the recommendations of the NGOs’ Task Force on Prison Welfare
Implement the recommendations of the NHRC on Prison Welfare
Monitor the nexus between the police, judiciary and the jail
At the same time, interventions were made to ensure that the prison officials became accustomed with a system under which under-trails are allowed to be interviewed by prison paralegals, Efforts were made to ensure that prison paralegals have access to the prison office, and they are allowed to work for raising awareness among the under-trails about the activities of the paralegals in prison. Simultaneously, prison paralegals should be granted freedom to approach the SOCIAL JUSTICE or its working groups on prisoners’ rights in the event of legal problems or human rights violation inside the prison.
Following roles were identified for prison paralegals:
Generate awareness among prisoners regarding their rights and laws pertaining to their welfare
Aid in writing applications for bail, confession, personal bond and the like
Monitor on the implementation of the Jail Manual rules
Refer legal and human rights violation incidents to working group on prisoners’ rights or to the JUSTICE.
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