Prisons represent a world of their own with their own customs, and cultures that are way different from the world outside. But since the dawn of civilisations, they have been an integral institution woven into the fabric
of society, some civilized and some barbaric depending on the purpose for which they are evolved by the societies. They truly and crucially reflect the ethos and pathos of the larger society. Nelson Mandela, who spent the prime years of his life in prison reflectingly said, ‘No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should be judged not by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.’
According to Jackie Turton, Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex, ‘it has long been acknowledged that our criminal justice system was originally designed by men, for men and that it is still largely dominated by men. As a result, women get slotted in to a framework that treats them like men, and fails to recognise some key differences and complexities.’ Put simply: women’s experience of prison and incarceration is palpably different than men’s.
‘Globally, women represent between 2–10 per cent of prison populations, but their numbers are increasing rapidly—more rapidly than the increase of male prisoners’
As criminal justice systems across the world move towards gender-blind sentencing, this has resulted in a tremendous increase in the rate of female incarceration. Concurrent elimination of parole and toughening of penalties for parole violations in many areas of the world also contribute to high rates of reentry and reoffending, further driving up rates of incarceration of women.
Women prisoners are placed in the criminal justice system both as victims of crime and perpetrators of offences. Despite Constitution- al guarantees of opportunity and civil rights, millions of prisoners face deprivation and discrimination, then how does it affect women prisoners languishing in jail differently? What are the social constraints that prohibit women prisoners from taking appropriate advantage from socio–political and legal systems? What are the causes of their plight? Do the state,
civil societies and NGOs fulfill their obligation towards the women prisoners? Should judiciary be more active to mitigate this social problem? Should we break the mindset of institutional care for women, which have been posed as
the only solution? These are some of the vital questions currently debated and the plights of women prisoners languishing in jail are also closely linked to this general debate.
Women Prisoner Scenario
Globally, women form an underrepresented population within prison systems, as the vast majority of incarcerated people are men. Although women form a minority in the global prison population, the population of incarcerated women is growing at a rate twice as fast as the male prison population.
According to Human Rights Council, there are more than 700,000 women prisoners across the globe out of which India has more than 18,000 female prisoners and not all of these are live-in female prisons.
As per Prison Statistics India 2015, NCRB, from the end of 2015, there are 4,19,623 persons in jail in India. Women constitute 4.3% of this figure, numbering a total of 17,834 women. Of these, 66.8% (11,916) are undertrial prisoners.
In India, an analysis of prison statistics at five-year intervals reveals an increasing trend in the number of women prisoners—3.3% of all prisoners in 2000, 3.9% in 2005, 4.1% in 2010 and 4.3% in 2015 were women. While women prisoners continue to be a minority in all parts of the world (less than 10%), the female prison population has increased faster than the male prison population on every continent. In the year 2019, The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released its Prison Statistics Report for 2019, and it showcases the ever-worsening plight of women prisoners. As per the data, out of the 4,78,600 prisoners, 4,58,687 were male prisoners and 19,913 were female prisoners.
Women Prisons: In India, women prisons
are not sufficient in number. According to the Prison Statistics India 2018, the number of total prisons is 1412, Women’s jail are prisons that exclusively house female prisons. Women’s jail may exist at the sub divisional, district, and central (zone/range) level. There are 20 women jails across India with a total capacity of 5’197 and an occupancy rate of 60.1% as on 31 December 2018. Due to the limited capacity of women’s jails, most of the female prisoners are housed at other types of jails. As of 31 December 2018, around 83.12% of all female prisoners in India were incarcerated at jails other than a Women jail.
Problems and Challenges
Women are a vulnerable group in prisons, due to their gender. While poverty stands as the biggest impediment to access justice, gender aggravates the challenges they face in custodial institutions. The socio-economic condition of women prisoners adversely impacts their access to competent legal representation and there- fore the possibility of a fair trial. Lack of trained correctional staff like psychologists or social workers, to deal with women centered issues, add to the plight of women inmates. Women convicts find themselves at the receiving end as long periods of incarceration often result in fading family support/disappearing family ties.
Female prisoners often lack an understanding of their legal rights in many countries, female prisoners have very limited access to legal advice and support. They may be poor and illiterate without the means to pay for legal aid. For this reason they are at risk of signing statements that may have serious legal implications and their lack of legal representation can lead to long delays in the criminal justice process, lowering their chances of being considered for bail.
Existing prison conditions, gender discrimination, custodial torture, inhuman treatment towards children, lack of basic humanity and inaccessibility to legal services further aggravate their sufferings. Many women detainees face inhuman and degrading treatment during arrest, interrogation and in custody, including being stripped; invasive body searches; rape and threats of rape; so-called ‘virginity testing’; and other acts, insults and humiliations of a sexual nature.
Basic facilities are lacking for the women and their children Most conversations with people who have spent time in prison featured a common complaint—the complete lack of privacy. Women prisoners are also visibly scared of the prison staff. There is scope for vast improvement on all levels, particularly in the attitude of the prison staff that needs to learn to respect the human rights of women prisoners. Most of the women prisoners are also a mother and their children are staying with them in the prison but the prison is not a place for the healthy growth of children. Prison environment affects the growth, survival, and development of the children. Children who stay with their mothers in prison are denied their basic rights to pre-school education. As a result, their children seldom have access to learning, and often lack social skills, having lived in a closed jail environment. After turning six, children are separated from their mothers and housed in state-run institutions until their mothers are released, or they are capable of earning a livelihood
While in jail, communication with the outside world gets snapped with a result that the inmate does not know what is happening even to his near and dear ones. This causes additional trauma. Women prisoners are more likely than men to take part in self-harming behaviour such as slashing and cutting as a coping strategy. Levels of suicide among women in prison are considerably higher than among men
Women prisoners report being forced into unprotected sex with male guards, sex work, sex for favours, and rape Sexual assault to the women prisoners is also a major problem which they are facing. There are horror stories about the torture in custody to the women prisoners. Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) stated that custodial rape remains one of the worst forms of torture perpetrated on women by law enforcement personnel and many custodial rapes of women take place at regular intervals.
Sanitation problem is one of the biggest problem faced by the women prisoners as women faces menstruation problem every month and still they don’t get proper sanitation facility due to which they are get prone to various diseases.
Lack of nutritious food is being provided
to pregnant women which is causing a severe harm to the health of mother and child, thus pregnant women prisoners should be given extra facilities with nutritious food and healthy environment. Women prisoners who are mother are unable to take care of their children inside the jail premises due to poor facilities and arrangements made for them.
Stigma, Lack of Family Support
Imprisoned women also bear the brunt of a stigma – they are seen as legally but also morally deviant—which means they are often abandoned by their families. In many countries, the crimes for which women are convicted are highly stigmatised, more so in a traditional country like India and this impacts women both during incarceration and following release under trial prisoners undergo ‘mental stress and agony’ because they do not know the situation of their close family members for a number of reasons, such as families not wanting to visit them in jail, or the jail administration not facilitating interaction.
In India the status of women prisoners is a problematic situation as the women in the prisoners are either under trial or convicted which leads to lots of issues like the overcrowding of prisons and due to lack of funds the women are provided with proper sanitation facilities, as the number of prisoners are more there is no adequate staff members in the prisoners which causes lots of trouble in the prisons, rising to conflicts, poor management in the prisons, etc. There are certain cases which reflected that due to poor security in the prison system there has been the occurrence of custodial rapes. Women are at risk of being killed by their families after release from prison, if they have committed ‘moral offences’, or are victims of rape or other sexual abuse.
Legislation and Government Measures
Judiciary has been playing an active part in responding to violations of the human rights
of female prisoners through its interpretation
of Articles 21, 19, 22, 37 and 39 A of the Indian Constitution. The Legislature has also come up with different laws enacted for the protection of prisoners in India including Prisons Act, 1894, Prisoners Act, 1900, Identification of Prisoner’s Act, 1920, Transfers of Prisoner’s Act, 1950, Prisoners (Attendance in Court Act), 1955, Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, Repatriation of Prisoner’s Act, 2003 and Model Prison Manual, 2016. Apart from these, we also have the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Indian Penal Code, 1860 where the emphasis is on rehabilitation, vocational training and transfer of prisoners from over-populated prisons to less congested ones.
In the last few decades, the urgent need for prison reforms has come into focus and it has been reiterated by courts that existing prison conditions are not conducive for their reformation. Focus has shifted to restorative Justice wherein victim and offender meet to reach a resolution with the help of a facilitator.
A National Policy on Prison Reforms and Correctional Administration had also been framed in 2007, which gave a number of directives relevant to women prisoners – maintenance of human rights of prisoners, avoiding overstay of under trials etc. It further states, ‘Women prisoners shall be protected against all exploitation. Work and treatment programmes shall be devised for them in consonance with their special needs.’
The key features of the updated Model Prison Manual 2016 include emphasis on prison computerization, special provisions for women prisoners, focus on after-care services, prison inspections, rights of prisoners sentenced to death, repatriation of prisoners from abroad, enhanced focus on prison correctional staff.
In India, at the instance of the Central Government, care programs are being envisaged. This can greatly benefit women prisoners who commit fewer crimes compared to their male counterparts. The path is not easy because, for restorative justice programs, there is a lack of awareness among people and prison inmates. In case of pregnant prisoners, the provisions of the National Model Prison Manual must be followed strictly to make arrangements for temporary release for delivery of children in a hospital outside the prison. Suspension of sentence may be considered in the case of casual offenders. Information about a woman’s pregnant status should also be made to the Court that has ordered the detention, to enable the Court to grant bail (where appropriate) or modify the detention order as deemed necessary. The manual also makes special provisions for pregnant and lactating women, who, it acknowledges, ‘need more proteins and minerals than [others]’.The food to be served itself is left to the states, since prisons are a ‘state subject’ in India. But prisoners frequently struggle with both the quality and quantity of food they’re provided.
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