Telangana: Jailbirds pick up burglary tricks in prison

HYDERABAD: Karthik (name changed), 25, was pursuing his BTech when he was caught for petty automobile theft. "He had no intention of stealing. He needed the vehicle to reach his destination, so he took it and abandoned it later," said a police officer.
Karthik’s interaction with repeat offenders in jail helped him develop contacts and learn the tricks of the trade. In the last six years, he has committed over 60 burglaries and ordinary thefts.

"Jail has become a place to make contacts. Property offences have become a semi-organised crime. A newbie who goes to jail for petty cases starts committing property offences after a few months," said Additional DCP Taskforce, Chaitanya Kumar.
"Prisons need to segregate the first-time offenders prisoners and repeat offenders in jail. Most of the first-time offenders can be rehabilitated, the repeat offenders are hard to counsel and they often end up influencing the first-time offenders who are behind bars for petty cases," added Kumar.
"These offenders commit property offences repeatedly due to poverty, lack of jobs and the influence of bad company. The DG is personally talking and counselling the repeat offender in property offences," said the officer.
According to an official from prisons and correctional services, the department has taken steps to rehabilitate the prisoners through the various programmes. At least 33 teams from the department, including counsellors, are working towards it.
As a part of the correctional services, the prison department has started programmes such as 'Job Mela' for former convicts and providing employment to convicts at special petrol pumps. Currently there are over 18 such petrol pumps running across the state where prisoners and convicts are working, the department has planned to open 20 more so that convicts don't go back to indulging in crime.
However, the officials admit that it is hard to reform repeat offenders.
"I have observed that less than 5% of the repeat offenders actually show changes and improvement while most of them are reluctant to attend development programmes. Though the jail is segregated crime-wise, they all mingle during the day. We need more space to segregate first-time offenders and repeat offenders further," said Ganesh Babu, jailor in Sangareddy jail
Dr Bina Ch, a prison psychologist who has been working with a team to reform the prisoners, has managed to rehabilitate many inmates under the programme 'Unnati'. "Under the 40-days programme, we first counsel them in a group, call their family members, divide them into small groups and conduct counselling sessions. We tell them what options lie ahead. We also do one-on-one counselling to understand the root cause of the issue," said Dr Bina.
"However, some notorious repeat offender clearly mock us saying and try influencing the novices. Under our programme, I have identified 60 such offenders, who are hard to handle. They are being counselled directly by the DG, prisons and correctional services," she added.