New Delhi : Giving special importance to the need for a change of mindset of governments to make jail a reformative and rehabilitative place for people who are caught on the wrong side of the law, the Supreme Court has favoured setting up of open jails where inmates are not confined to the boundaries of the jail and allowed to live with their family members outside the jail during the day and earn livelihood on their own.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that the governments must take humane approach towards prisoners and directed the Centre to convene a meeting with the Directors General and Inspectors General of Prison of all states and union territories to examine the feasibility of setting up of open jail in each district.
The court said that prisoners are forced to live an inhuman life in overcrowded jails with no basic facilities and many of them were committing suicide and dying unnatural death.
It said that open jail system could pave the way to allow them to live with dignity and help them to foster a sense of self- worth in the prisoners. It passed the order on a plea of advocate Gaurav Agrawal, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, seeking its direction to states to set up open jails in each district. The bench had taken suo motu cognisance in 2012 on pathetic condition in 1382 prisons in the country and has been passing directions from time to time to improve the condition.
