Gujarat prisons to have psychological cells to help inmates

To offer jail inmates a rehabilitation programme, designed specifically for violent offenders, to help them reintegrate in the society, jail authorities in Gujarat have decided to set up psychological cells at four central jails in the state. The initiative was introduced as a pilot project at Sabarmati Central jail in Ahmedabad with the help of forensic psychologist Reena Sharma after she undertook an exhaustive study on assessing violent behaviour of inmates and introduced a psychological intervention.

Sharma who is pursuing her PhD from Raksha Shakti University through cognitive behaviour therapy and interventions assessed to recognise the signs of re-occurrence so the offenders can go to identify these before the problem comes back. Through 'Samarth', she identifies the treatment readiness of inmates and gives personally designed psychological intervention further eliminating their criminogenic needs so that they can reintegrate in the society reduce recidivism.

After a year of success at Sabarmati Central jail, similar intervention centres will be established in all the central prisons of Gujarat including Lajpur central prison in Surat, Rajkot central prison, Baroda central prison.

Confirming the same, Mohan Jha, Inspector General (Prisons) said, "Samarth has been extended to all the other central prisons in Gujarat after its successful results for about a year in Sabarmati Central jail. Because of this initiative, there is a change in mindset among offenders as they now take prison as a teaching institution and not as a punishment cell."

Speaking about her experience, Sharma says, "Participants learn variety of tools and techniques such as self-awareness, emotional regulation, forgiveness, anger management, interpersonal problem solving, recognising one's own feelings, art of control and impulse control techniques, dealing with negative stressful life events, dealing with rejection, anxiety, fear and criticism, learning to share and ask for help, communicating disinterest and so on during the sessions."

Sharma who is also the founder of The Mind Practice that runs 'Samarth' and has in the past worked with Tihar jail, New Delhi and Bhondsi jail, Haryana for the mental wellbeing of prisoners.

CASE LIST

• Sharing some cases of inmates, she said, "Veer (name changed) was convicted with the murder of his wife and is serving 10th year of life sentence. Initially, he demonstrated major anger issues, that resulted in tiffs with his fellow inmates. During his sessions, he was brought to terms with his issues and he showed tremendous improvement. He finished his mentorship program and now teaches skills to other participants."  
• In another case, 32-year-old Star (name changed) is a convict for murdering a close friend. During the sessions, it was revealed that he had a very troubled childhood and showed deviant behavior from his early years. He hardly spent time with his family and from an early age got addicted to alcohol. He would only look for shortcuts to find his solutions and became antisocial and depended only on his antisocial with criminal background. He took his life like a thrill game, his present condition made him prone to sudden outbursts of anger, and the feeling of seeking revenge on his family and community, who in his mind, did not support him. Even today, he is worried as to how the society would treat him after he gets out of prison. While he regrets his offence of killing his friend, who he claims he misses, he is unable to let go of that guilt which further aggravates his situation."