Don't punish, but reform criminals

BANGALORE: R.K. Sharma, Salman Khan, Muthappa Rai, Sanjay Dutt, Kareem Lala and Abu Salem may be making prison cells hot spots now. But Bangalore-based Prison Ministry India, which has won The Spirit of Assisi National Award 2002, believes that reformation rather than retribution is what will rehabilitate transgressors.
The society which works for the release and reformation of prisoners, has 850 units in India, including one in Tihar Jail, which has been rechristened as Tihar Ashram by IPS officer Kiran Bedi, who has also made it a non-smoking zone.Prison Ministry, which is to receive the award on November 3 in Kerala, has 14 rehabilitation centres for men, women and children.
Why not retribution in this growing climate of hardened criminals? Says Father Sebastian Vadakumpadan, "Over 90 per cent of people behind the bars are from economically weaker sections, street children or people from broken homes."
He illustrates the point that retaliation for a crime does not help by quoting an anecdote: A group of hardened criminals were asked to watch a man being hanged for his wrongdoing. "Even as the criminal was being raised at the gallows, one person from the group was seen picking the pocket of another," says Sebastian.
Quoting instances from the Bangalore prison, Sebastian says an offender let out on bail in the morning, last week, was back in prison the same evening for another crime. ``He must have been punished and thoroughly warned before being let out, which in reality did not help.''''
G. Jeeva Prakash, who bails out innocent prisoners for the Prison Ministry, is happy about former Bangalore Police Commissioner H.T. Sangliana taking over the reins of Parappana Agrahara.
Prakash remembers when Sangliana was the Additional Director General of Police in 1997, he had said on November 2 of the same year, ``Petty criminals and even those who are innocent are put behind the bars, just to show the public the police is doing its job.''''
Even when the Prison Ministry finds itself backing the wrong person once in a way, it still does not give up hope on the reformation theory. The volunteers were rudely awakened by a call from former Frazer Town police inspector H. Sidappa who informed them that a culprit whom they had bailed out, known as a reformed person, always reading the Bible, was in reality a thief by night!
Other than bailing out innocent prisoners, the ministry helps spouses and children of prisoners to lead a crime-free life by rehabilitating them through vocational courses and admitting them to school. You can contribute to the cause of this charity organisation which depends only on local contributions.