Uttar Pradesh prisons will now be viewed as correction centres; Jails to be called 'reform homes'

Uttar Pradesh prisons will now be viewed as correction homes and called 'reform homes' or 'sudhar grah'. This comes after a high-level meeting where the condition of prisons in the state was discussed and the state chief minister instructed officials to come up with a new Prisons Act. The aim is to develop a rehabilitative ideology for prisoners.

"Arrangements like security assessment of prisoners, grievance redressal, Prison Development Board, change in behaviour towards prisoners and provision of separate accommodation for women prisoners and transgender etc should be implemented," the CM directed.

Currently, regarding prisoners in jail, the Jail Act of 1894 along with the Prisoners Act of 1900 have been in effect since pre-Independence. Numerous provisions do not fit well with the dynamically changing circumstances.

"The purpose of the Jail Act 1894 is to keep the criminals in custody in a disciplined manner, but we have to focus on reformation and rehabilitation. In such a situation, keeping the future in view, we need to implement new Act," he explained further.

Additionally, a proposal is in plans to install open jails, as per the reforms, with high-security barracks created for inured criminals and terrorists. The semi-open jail will be operational in Lucknow, for which a proposal is underway.

The utilisation of technology to bring about transparency amidst the prison administration will also be focussed at. According to a new jail manual recently approved by state cabinet, more than some 4,200 CCTV cameras have been set up in the prisons, making it closer to a more Panoptican system.

For the same, drone cameras will also be integrated, that could turn out to be useful in reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners.