ABSTRACT
Examining the topic of “Prisoners’ Right to Education and Skill Development,” this paper will clarify the significant effects that these rights have on both the incarcerated person and society at large. The piece explores the transformative potential of offering strong educational opportunities and skill-building programmes inside the jail system.
This crucial discussion emphasises the importance of rehabilitation in reducing recidivism rates, fostering positive long-term outcomes, and providing offenders with the knowledge and skills necessary for their reintegration into society. The talk focuses mostly on the numerous benefits of acknowledging and enhancing prisoners’ rights to education and skill development.
Within the prison atmosphere, education provides a ray of hope, providing inmates with a road map for personal development in addition to knowledge. This study explores how education might significantly improve inmates’ capacity for critical thought, emotional intelligence, and job readiness. Furthermore, it investigates how these gained abilities can act as a catalyst for breaking the cycle of criminality, ultimately leading to safer communities.
Keywords: Prisoners’ Rights, Education, skill development, imprisoned, rehabilitation…
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
- What is the importance of providing imprisoned individuals with opportunities for education and skill-building?
- What are the challenges faced by prisoners in accessing education in Indian prisons and how are their right to Education and Skill Development denied?
- What impact does access to education and skill development programs have on the rehabilitation and reintegration outcomes for prisoners?
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The research also includes a content analysis of old records, journals, government documents, conferences, law commission reports, law reporters, reference materials, scientific papers in both articles and books and e-journals, magazines, articles, series of documentaries, videos online, newspaper articles, national parliament debates, and so on. The research is based on both primary and secondary data.
INTRODUCTION
“Prison education is a means of rehabilitating and re-directing. If you release someone with the same skills with which she came in, she’s going to get involved in the same activities as she did before.”
–Marymount Bedford Hills
The society is built upon the principle of collective welfare, where one reflects and impact the others and creates an overall influence, if we neglect some portion and do not work collectively for the cause it causes disturbance and imbalance. The wrongdoers are not always the culprits by choice, they happen to be victims of several injustices and unfortunate circumstances in their lives.
All convicts should have access to education, nevertheless, as it is a fundamental human right. They should be able to have an opportunity to improve and it’s their protected rights to achieve the same. The right to education is inextricably linked to the right to lifelong learning, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and upholds UNESCO’s purpose. From the moment of detention until the day of release, this includes granting access to high-quality education. Prison education has an indisputable impact and power.
Importance of providing imprisoned individuals with opportunities for education and skill-building:
Every person of the nation should have access to education since it is a fundamental right. It is mandatory to provide the appropriate kind of education in addition to education itself.
The lack of attention given to prison education in India’s justice system makes it challenging to locate relevant research in that nation. On the other hand, one may anticipate comparable outcomes if India’s convicts receive education. In any case, it’s important to remember that the majority of Indian convicts are either uneducated or illiterate.
It makes the most sense, morally and rationally, to reduce the expense of incarceration by funding education since it gives everyone the chance to prosper in the future, regardless of their background.
Individuals’ self-esteem and social skills can be restored, avenues to a better future can be opened, and education can give people a voice. Education appears to be a better use of tax dollars than supporting the high recidivism rates that exist across the nation, even though giving incarcerated people the chance to complete their high school education and eventually a college degree may not solve all the structural problems with the criminal justice system. Education, as Horace Mann famously observed, is “the great equaliser,” but it only functions when the most marginalised people have access to it.
The court attempted to control the kind of employment and instruction given to jail inmates in the case of Muhammad Giasuddin v. State of AP It instructed the state government to investigate the kind of labour and instruction supplied to the inmates and ensure that the labour is “not of a monotonous, mechanical, intellectual or like type mixed with a title manual labour.” The prisoner who wishes to pursue higher or advanced education must also be provided with the means of communication through correspondence courses, the court further declared. Additionally, fundamental skills like sewing, doll-making, and tailoring must to be taught to the female inmates.
National Human Rights Commission (2004-5) published general rules mandating that inmates be provided with reading materials and other educational resources to foster their abilities and overall growth as individuals. It declared that each jail must have a library equal to the number of inmates it houses, with specific focus on creating educational and recreational resources appropriate for female inmates as well as those who could be young or illiterate. The research emphasised the importance of selecting educational materials according to the convicts’ educational and cultural backgrounds.
Regarding the availability and type of educational initiatives for prisoners, not much is known, despite these and other suggestions made by international organisations like the UN. It is disclosed in the National Crime Records Bureau’s annual reports that how many prisoners profited from vocational and educational training courses in a given year, but no information is provided regarding the metrics that were used to calculate these benefits.
Challenges faced by prisoners in accessing education in Indian prisons and how are their rights denied:
After independence, academicians started to push for the provision of educational resources like libraries and instructional programs within the prison walls. “Qaiser Hayat” concluded in 1983 after doing an analysis of the general and vocational education options available at the time that jail education in India is still mostly ignored. Modern vocational training programmes were nonexistent, the library’s facilities were inadequate, and there was a conspicuous absence of classrooms with designated seating. The unfavourable opinions of other inmates towards those participating in these activities constituted another obstacle to the improvement of educational initiatives in jail.
It is prevalent to note that prison is a state subject, hence if there is political will, there shall be no difficulty at the centre taking an active and direct interest in prison administration but the limited data available regarding jail education in India nearly 40 years later indicates that it is still an underappreciated problem.
Due to a lack of funds and access to the resources required for state run programmes to be successful, a large portion of the prison population still cannot afford to receive a quality education.
One of the biggest problems for prisoners in prison is that they are often left feeling flat, which can be frustrating and increase the likelihood of accidents involving staff and other inmates.
One of the biggest problems that inmates face when imprisoned is monotony “Farley, 2016”. Many believe that offenders should serve their time for their crimes rather than their degrees. The political system acts in response to the fear that teaching criminals will make them better criminals. Numerous studies demonstrate that these anxieties are unjustified. Education provided to prisoners reduces their likelihood of resuming criminal activity after release by 43% (Keller, 2014). Rationality and incarceration are closely related. 85% of all minors who interact with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, according to a recent nationwide study.
According to 2018 Prison Statistics India, just 11% of India’s 466,084 inmates received vocational training, while less than 25% of inmates received an education. Even though several NGOs and legal aid services are currently addressing the topic of jail reform through education, the majority of these initiatives remain irregular.
Inmates lose interest or motivation as a result of inadequate instruction, insufficient pay, a lack of tools and equipment, a shortage of raw materials, and the below average products created by teachers. Furthermore, prisoners are frequently placed according to seat availability, regardless of their skill level or personal interests.
Another aspect can be looked in the form of factors underlying bias or discrimination because of the stigma associated with being a prisoner. They may be naturally assumed to be non-cooperative and so the approach to teaching them might be under developed. Another challenge they might face is how to catch up with the fast paced moving world that has advanced while they have been serving time. Practical skills for survival also need to be taught. They might be struggling in terms of their mental health.
Education and soft Skill development is necessary but there should be an overall check on their mental health status as well and they need to be given the appropriate medical attention for it if they are willing to improve themselves.
Negative societal attitudes and lack of a good environment with poor facilities in prison facilities can create an environment that is not ideal for learning and concentration
The impact of prisoners access to education and skill development programs as an outcome of their rehabilitation and reintegration:
Prison education has a viable case: it is an affordable means of lowering crime and has long-term advantages for all masses. People who take part in any kind of educational programme while they are imprisoned had a 43% lower chance of being re-arrested, according to a 2016 RAND Corporation analysis. Education has the power to enhance results for future generations while also lowering recidivism.
A country’s whole population is affected by greater recidivism rates because money and resources wasted on the criminal justice system are diverted from other community reform projects. Increased criminality has implications across generations that include a greater chance of unstable family structures, less financial resources, a stronger tendency for delinquent behaviour, and eventually becoming criminals themselves. Consequently, funding prisoner education results in a very high return on investment and ultimately saves the government money.
U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) indicates in a study that around half of all people freed from federal prisons reoffend within 8 years of their release, and approximately half of those reoffend are reincarcerated. The same research depicts, that the highest rates of reoffending across all age groups are seen in those under 21 who are released from federal prison. People without a high school diploma were most likely to be arrested again (60.4%), whereas people with a college degree were most likely to be arrested again (19.1%).
Young people and children in school who are jailed have a higher chance of being arrested again, but they can eventually benefit greatly from educational opportunities provided to them while they are in cell.
CONCLUSIONS-
People who have served time in jail before and have little education are more likely to commit crimes after being released from prison because they lack the financial means and social networks to support themselves. This makes them more likely to commit crimes rather than reintegrate into society. It is clear that jail education in India is an entrenched deficiency because it is not much required or regulated by policy and is given even less weight in actual implementation.
Many prisoners are falsely accused and which hinders their overall development, of course the primary focus for such prisoners should be to get them justice but what about the time they spend in confinement until they are proven innocent for the crimes they never committed? If they are taught life skills or given education during that time it can help them lead a good life after they are acquitted.
Moreover prisoners those are minors have comparatively less punishment than those who are adult for the same crimes, hence if their right to education is not compromised, these minors would easily catch up with other students in this highly competitive world and can lead a good life.
One of several strategies that could reduce the security risk in prisons is to involve inmates in educational activities. Rather than being in the best interests of the convicts, the current initiatives are merely in place to comply with specific government regulations.
Instances from past are recollected and many such initiatives have been contributing more or less to stabilize the ongoing crisis, for example IGNOU was founded in 1985 by a parliamentary act to give all societal segments access to high-quality postsecondary education. In order to encourage jail inmates nationwide to enroll in the University’s programmes, IGNOU announced its “Free Education for Prisoners” campaign during the 2010 academic year. This initiative cancelled all fees, including exam, admission, and convocation costs. This action has proven to be a crucial turning point in the encouragement and rehabilitation of inmates, with the goal of enhancing their quality of life after release.
A statutory organization like the UGC, or a programme like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or the National Adult Education Programme, might take charge of jail education in a way such that the curriculum adhered to has practical benefits for prisoners.
REFERENCES:
Articles/Papers:
- John Vorhaus “Prisoners’ right to education: A philosophical survey” London Review of Education Volume 12, Number 2, July 2014
- By Margaret Giles Anh Tram Le “To train or not to train” ISBN 1 920896 32 5 print edition, ISBN 1 920896 33 3 web edition
- Kathleen Bender “Education Opportunities in Prison Are Key to Reducing Crime” Education Policy at the Center for American Progress (March, 2018)
- Susan Easton “Not just another brick in the wall? Protecting prisoners’ right to education” International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice (Volume 69, June 2022, 100530)
- Dr. Banamali Barik “VOCATIONAL TRAINING TO CONVICTED PRISONERS THROUGH SKILL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES: INDIAN CONTEXT” The Law Brigade (Publishing) Group
Web-links Referred:
- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1160353.pdf
- https://sprf.in/prisoners-educational-reforms-in-india-an-institutionalised-insufficiency/
- https://delhipostnews.com/prisoners-education-in-india-an-institutionalised-insufficiency/
- https://blog.ipleaders.in/rights-prisoners-major-judgments/#Right_to_Education