NCW to share best practices with BPR&D in prison reforms

New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday said the commission will share best practices with the BPR&D for bringing about prison reforms particularly in the context of women inmates.

NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam also said that the Commissioner and the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) could work together to extend legal aid, rehabilitation and grievance redressal related to women prisoners.

She was delivering the valedictory address at the two-day fifth National Conference of Heads of Prisons of States and Union Territories on prison reforms here.

Stating that rehabilitation of marginalised sections is very difficult, Kumaramangalam said the NCW had developed training modules and women's participation in panchayats which can also be beneficial for authorities dealing with women inmates.

On the occasion, Director General of BPR&D Meeran Borwankar said: "Rehabilitation issues of women inmates and their minor children are critical since as many as 4.2 per cent of total prisoners in the country are women."

The conference passed 12 resolutions including changing the nomenclature of prisons to correctional administration or correctional homes, creation of probation officers vacancies and appointment of welfare officers, counsellors and law officers.

Adoption of the model prisons act, linking of prisons with courts through video conferencing and integrating prison e-system with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) project were also the important resolutions passed in the conference.

Four such conferences were organised by the BPR&D and the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2013.

For the first time, the superintendents of central and district jails were invited. The representatives from leading universities, NGOs, and students of law and criminology departments also attended the conference.

The delegates later visited India's largest prison complex Tihar Jail to see the best practices and systems in use there.