Nagaland Prisons in transition from punitive to correctional

August 30, 2022 49 Views No Comment

Another skilling project for inmates introduced at Central Jail, Dimapur

Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 30

Prisons in Nagaland are going through a transitional phase with policy orienting towards making incarceration correctional in nature than punishment. Following a line of skilling oriented projects which have been implemented in prisons across Nagaland over the past few years, the Central Jail, Dimapur has introduced another skill training programme for inmates.

This time, it is tailoring, introduced under the Sankalp project in collaboration with Department of Employment, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and with TK Skills as the training partner.

The project was officially launched on August 29 by the Director General of Prisons, Rupin Sharma at the jail premises.

Director of Employment, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Chiden Yaden and the founder of TK Skills, Dr Temsuwati were also present.

According to Sharma, the tailoring training was the result of an idea he shared with Director Yaden about 5 years back.

The basic idea was to focus on imparting “individual skills” that would enable an inmate, on release, to engage in a paying activity independently without having to depend on employers as opposed to skills that would require employment in big factories, which Nagaland has hardly any.

While informing that around 60 inmates have signed up for the programme, he said that it would not be limited to inmates, who are serving sentences already, but also open to “under trial and under investigation” inmates.

Besides, he said that the inmates can use the tailoring skill to earn while serving extended sentences. “Whatever you earn will be deposited to your (bank) account… There is no end to what we can do. You can take orders not only of the police but also of schools and other sectors. This jail can serve as a big factory, infact,” he said.

Making ‘mura’ (bamboo/cane seat), manufacturing detergent and LED bulbs, developing culinary skills and sanitary napkin manufacturing have been some of the programmes introduced. Later, interacting with the media, he said, “If you remember, back in 2017 along with Pinnacle Skills, we had introduced cutlery and culinary training also. That is one programme where inmates benefitted a lot.” According to him, some of the inmates, who underwent the training, were able to successfully start life anew after serving out their sentences.

Carpentry and painting are two other skills, which the state Prisons authority wants to introduce. With the amount of wood that Nagaland produces, he held that the state can also become a furniture production/export hub than only being a bulk exporter of timber.

While the reform bids have been one, there are challenges too. Sharma said, “The problem is we do not have a ready market and we do not have a marketing mechanism so we are trying to see if we can get orders in advance” besides scaling up production.

Citing the introduction of manufacturing sanitary napkin, he said that they are trying to rope in NGOs, who can place orders in advance. In this project, erratic power supply has been a big problem.

Nevertheless, he said that the feedback, on samples, has been to improve. He said, “So, we have asked the vendors and NABARD to help us in improving the quality. Hopefully once the quality improves, the marketing and everything will also improve.”

He maintained that the intention behind the initiative was to provide sanitary napkins to sections of the society where girls cannot afford it.

On the LED bulb project, he admitted maintaining a steady supply of raw materials turned out to be a challenge. The idea has since been to concentrate on cost-effective but fruitful projects.

He further informed that a request for improving toilets in prisons was put up during the recent CSR Conclave, the response to which was positive. Hinting at the use of drugs by inmates, he added that a project to set up a drug de-addiction centre at the Central Jail has been “agreed in principle.” Without going into details, he estimated that there could be around 12-13 inmates with mental illness in the jails of Nagaland.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/nagaland-prisons-in-transition-from-punitive-to-correctional