Oh! The Prison
I was thinking about several Bombay blast that happened on 1993, a good 14 years back, and the star studded action and the eventual decisions that encapsulated the drama put me more confused and dreamy thinking about the Jails and the life sentences.
We had an actor convicted for his connection to the Bombay Blasts that killed about 800 people. He was convicted for six years of jail imprisonment - rigorous one. And I wonder what rigorous would mean in a jail? However, this actor ensured that there were no dramatic moments by making a big hue and cry. What made me think a little about the jail conditions available for the common man in India - that is poor men? Appalling and disturbing to even think about them. There was a news, a sympathetic one that too - No fan, no bed sheet, common toilets. I don't think so. The jail would have a separate one for the stars even inside the jail and what made me think is the little amenities that the culprits get when in the jail and how would this ever make a change in their attitude? Through out the world there are organizations that say death sentencing should be stopped and more life sentencing should be the decision. But hey, what have we done to improve the life and the thought process for a crime doer in the prison during his stay there? No improvements in anything what so ever. A criminal enters a prison to live there and eventually leaves the prison as a criminal.
If Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton survived a day in the prisons which are available in India then I take my defeat here. The conditions there are so appalling and we expect more life imprisonments. I can't believe this. Compare the prison life style in the US. I will be dog headed and will definitely compare with a better country every small issue. That is the only way we can grow. The county prison ensures that the prisoners actually get everything that the commoners get outside the prison. Change in food menu for a week, gym, work part job, separate cell, the basic amenity. Again, they have their own problems to face with and solve. Do a direct comparison to what we have here. The convict shares his cell with 8 (sometimes) because the jails are getting over loaded these days. And to top it they sleep in concrete slabs, common toilets - which I reckon would not be hygienic and taken care of, no fans for the hot hot seasons, just one woolen bed spread which you use to cover yourself during the harsh winters, a cheap quality slipper to walk around and finally wade through mosquitoes and what not.
How do you expect the guy in these conditions to even survive and then come out with a changed mind and thought? I don't expect him to change one bit. Rather he is going to be out there to do more crimes and be on the hide out, may be on the ironical flip side, he might not want to commit a crime to be stuck in the shit hole - prison for long again ! A straight forward thinking would mean that so much of change has to happen and more money should be spent on developing this state of affairs as well. Improve the bedding arrangements, lights, life inside the prison, make an attempt to alter the thinking of the prisoner so that he does not think that raping, molesting, killing, kidnapping someone is not the way you live your life henceforth.
We become quite emotional when we see the Stars get a common toilet or no bed sheet or no fan situation. I was a bit stirred. But it was not because he was a star. My heart told my brain, "A person who has lived well and rich should never ever get into a situation as bad as that where survival is the toughest" not that they come from a different world all together but it is the life style that hurts. And sadly, that is how the prisons and other life styles are. I empathize the poor who would get accommodated together to make room for a star, if any change has to happen it should now. Jail life is a shady life with no one wanting to dip their hands in the gutter of a mess; so with the skirmish between prison life or life sentence, I would take the life sentence any day coz I die today to live else where not in this world where as in the prison I would die everyday to live ! Or is the prison condition so appalling because of our population? I don't know but I am mighty sad to think about life there. It is a three different world out in this part of the woods it seemed - Rich, Poor and the Prison.
Finally, I think a prison is a deadly pit with poisonous snakes and an experience would cripple a person for his life by taking away the life from you in front of you, hearsay/differences in the opinions when he comes out of the prison is sufficient to tear his existence and importantly with the self confidence bellied, for me, a criminal will remain a criminal throughout the life !
