TN Prisons dept’s ‘blanket ban’ on prison news disregards basic rights of inmates

CHENNAI: What started as a move to mellow out growing enmity among inmates or divert them from issues that may cause distress inside prisons have now effervesced into a question of prisoners’ fundamental right to access information. The Prisons Department censoring information that reaches inmates through newspapers is not new. However, blocking out sensitive news has now morphed into a “blanket ban” on any news related to prisons. Such censorship also points to the failure of committees explicitly formed to guard the rights and ensure the reformation of inmates.

“There were Supreme Court orders clearly stating that imprisonment means restricting the movement. Except that, the prisoners are entitled to all rights, including access to information. However, the prison department authorities believe that once a person lands in jail, he is deprived of all fundamental rights. It is a violation,” V Suresh of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties said.

Activists and advocates opined that the prison department’s action is a complete disregard for the fundamental rights of the inmates. They are denied news in any form that concerns the department, keeping around 20,000 inmates in nine central prisons for men and five special prisons for women in total darkness.

Welfare officers screen the communication between the inmates and their family members and books accessed by the inmates per the rules. Letters from families that may have a negative impact on the mental health of the prisoners, books with radical content, and information against the state’s interest would be censored.

This practice of the prison department divulges that entities like the Prison Visitor Committees and the Prison Reform Committees, constituted to ensure the prisoners’ rights and address their grievances, are non-functioning.

“The SC constituted jail reform and visiting committees by roping in district magistrate/collector and civil society activists to ensure prisoners’ rights and aid their reform. But what is happening in the prisons shows that these committees have collapsed and failed to do their duty,” he said.

Advocate K Raja, who had worked with the prison department earlier, said the prison authorities do not even permit news on government policies for the welfare of the inmates and their reformation to reach the inmates. “What started as a cautious measure to filter the news that creates unwarranted tension and rivalry among the prisoners has turned into total news censorship. Newspapers are cut into pieces and handed over to prisoners. This serves no purpose,” Raja commented.

Echoing this, a released prisoner said that they never watched news channels inside prison. Things have turned from bad to worse since the Covid pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020. “Except for political and influential prisoners like AG Perarivalan, the other prisoners never accessed uncensored newspapers. Apart from this, most of the newspapers purchased for the prisoners are diverted to senior prison officials’ residences,” said the former prisoner, who had enrolled as a para legal volunteer during his jail term. He continued that 42 prisoners were supposed to receive a newspaper, but these newspapers were diverted to officials’ offices and residences.

The prison authorities, however, justify the censorship by stating that the practice helps them prevent “unwanted tension” and avoid enmity brewing among the inmates over the incidents happening outside the walls. “This practice has been in place for nearly two decades. It has been done to avert riots and rivalry within the prison as news such as gang war, caste killings, and related news have an impact inside the prison,” said a senior prison official.