Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Personal Statement Example ’— This issue always bothered me much and I began to make detailed study of sociology of crimes. Reformation and rehabilitation of prison inmates: I was selected to study the conditions in Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi (India) and the amenities available to the jail inmates. I was one among group of 12 college students from different countries chosen by the authorities of the UNESCO Head Office at Paris for a three months study-cum-research project on the subject of â€Å"Reformation and Rehabilitation of Prisoners† and I represented the State of Texas, America. India has a huge Jail population, and Tihar is the biggest Jail in India, with an average population of 14000 inmates spread over 13 Jails in different parts of New Delhi. Our first meeting was with the Public Relations Officer of Tihar Administration. He seemed to have read the thought processes going on in the minds of some of us. He gave us, among other literature, a 4 page pamphlet than began with the following quote from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, which read thus: â€Å"Another error which people indulge in is the fear that ‘if jail conditions are improved people will flock in’! This shows a singular ignorance of human nature. No one wants to go to prison however good the prison might be. To be deprived of liberty and family life and friends and home surroundings is terrible thing. It is well known that the Indian peasant will prefer to stick to his ancestral soil and starve rather than go elsewhere to better his condition.† The technological development and the promised benefits of the materialistic civilization, the youngsters from rural areas of India are migrating to the metropolitan cities. This is the problem before many developing countries. Unable to get proper employment, with poor accommodation facilities, they take to the path of crime to get rich quickly. Once they are arrested and land in Jail, they come across m any hardened criminals who advise them about the â€Å"benefits† of the criminal life. The process of degeneration begins, and this is one of the important reasons for increase in the Jail population. Another stunning revelation was presented before us. Amongst the jail population, the number of actual convicts is just 30% and the rest are under trials. The judicial process is very slow in India and the reasons for that are manifold. On a cursory glance of the literature relating to functioning of the jails, we found that it was due to shortage of the investigating and judicial officers, delay in the submission of the charge sheet and the subsequent hearings take years and the accused remains languished within the four walls of the prison. An unfortunate consequence of the prevailing social and economic conditions in India is the steady increase in the Jail population. Overcrowding in Jails is a serious issue and in some Jails, it is to such an extent, that prisoners sleep in shifts. Gangsters, bride-burners, anti-social elements, petty thieves, and all sorts of criminals are accommodated together, under the brand of under trials. Prisoners are a special kind of humanity and they need individual counselling depending upon the nature of crimes committed by them and as per their mental frame. The next issue is about the judicial process. Those guilty need to be awarded punishment quickly and innocents should not be made to languish in prisons. In the first few days of our study, we interviewed a number of top officials from the prison