Prisons and Correctional Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: B

In Ramamurthy v. State of Karnataka (1997) the Supreme Court gave directions for prison reforms.

The case was about the condition of Indian prisons. The Court identified problems such as overcrowding, delay in trials, torture and ill-treatment, neglect of health and hygiene, insufficient food and clothing, and the poor state of prison staff, and it directed the Union and the States to take steps, including the framing of a model prison manual.

It was not a judgment on juvenile justice, on the judiciary or on the police, which are subjects of other cases such as Prakash Singh for police reform. So the second option is the answer.

Answer: C

Prisoners are admitted to an open air jail on the authority of the jail authorities.

An open prison, camp or colony takes in convicts who are chosen by the prison administration, usually through a committee of jail officials, on their good conduct, the length of their sentence and their suitability for work without guards. The decision lies with the jail department and not with the police, who only arrest and investigate.

The judiciary sentences the offender but does not choose the type of institution in which the sentence is served. So the correct answer is the jail authorities.

Answer: A

Sub jails are mainly meant for undertrial prisoners.

A sub jail is a small jail at the sub-division or tehsil level, used to hold persons on remand or under trial, and also those given short sentences, for a short time before they are produced in court or moved to a larger jail.

Convicts serving long terms are kept in central and district jails. Political detenus are not held in sub jails as a class, and children in conflict with law are kept in observation homes and special homes, not in jails.

Answer: B

The first jail training school in India was established in Uttar Pradesh.

The training school for jail officers was set up at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in 1957, as the first institution for the training of prison staff, following the recommendations for the training of jail personnel.

Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala set up training institutions for prison staff later, so they were not first.

Answer: A

The spirit of parole, or premature release, is expressed by (i), (ii) and (iii). Parole aims at reformation and rehabilitation of the prisoner, saves money for the public treasury, since the prisoner is not kept at state expense, and uses the family and community as resources in his reform.

Statement (iv), that it is a concession to the wrong-doer, is not the spirit of parole; it is a measure of correction, not a favour. So the options which include (iv), or which leave out (ii) or (iii), are wrong.

Answer: C

Central jails are mainly meant for convict prisoners, especially those sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, usually of more than two years. They have large capacity and facilities for work, training and education of the convicted.

Children in conflict with law are placed in observation homes and special homes, political detenus are held under detention laws in other arrangements, and under-trial prisoners are held in district and sub-jails, so these are not the main purpose of the central jail.

Answer: D

Walter C. Reckless, the American criminologist, visited India in the early 1950s on behalf of the United Nations to study the Indian prisons, and his report, prepared at the request of the Government of India, led to the preparation of the All India Jail Manual Committee and later reforms.

E.H. Sutherland and Marvin Wolfgang are known for their theories of crime, and J.J. Panakal was an Indian expert in the field of correction, so they are not the visitor referred to in the question.

Answer: C

The key gives Andhra Pradesh as the state in which the first regular open prison was established. Open prisons are institutions in which prisoners, selected for good conduct, work and live without the walls and guards of a normal prison, and the concept spread from the early camps set up in the 1950s.

Uttar Pradesh is also named for its open camp near Varanasi in 1953, and Tamil Nadu and Kerala set up open prisons later, but the key follows the third option. Reviewers should note that sources differ on which state is first.

Answer: D

The process by which newly admitted prisoners come to accept prison lifestyles and sometimes criminal values is called prisonization, a term coined by Donald Clemmer in The Prison Community (1940). The inmate learns the customs, language and code of the prison world.

Probation restitution is a sentencing measure, prison population is the number of inmates, and prison subculture is the set of values and norms of the inmates, which is the thing learnt, whereas the process of learning it is prisonization.

Answer: D

The right to vote is not a right of prisoners under the law in India, since Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 bars a person in prison from voting. It is the one among the four that prisoners do not have.

Prisoners keep other rights, such as the right to speech within limits, to movement within the prison as the rules allow, and to education, which the courts have held to be a part of the right to life and dignity.