Historical Review of Prison Reforms in India and recommendations of All India Jail Committee(1919-1920)

Abstract

Broadly speaking, the existence of prisons in our society is an ancient phenomenon since vedic period where the anti-social elements were kept in a place identified by the rulers to protect the society against crime. Prisons’ were considered as a ‘House of Captives’ where prisoners were kept for retributory and deterrent punishment.
John Locke, the great English political theorist of seventeenth century expressed that men were basically good but laws were still needed to keep down ’the few desperate men in society’. The aim of the society as expressed in its criminal law is to safeguard its own existence to maintain order and to make it possible for all citizens to lead a good life, free from molestation of others. The law enforcement agencies have been given the powers by the society to curtail the freedom of its citizens by taking them into custody in connection with their deviant conduct.