Our porous prisons

It is not long since news readers and watchers in Karnataka saw viral video images of murder accused cine actor Darshan Thoogudeepa chilling while reclining on an armchair in the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail premises in Bengaluru. The actor held a lighted cigarette in one hand and a mug in the other. The actor was seen chatting with three of his dreaded key associates. Given the opulence of the ambience, the vast audience of the social media had wondered if the life behind those high walls was really as austere and Spartan as the authorities claim to render them. Following an outcry from civil society and the kin of victim Renukaswamy, nine senior officials administering the prison were suspended. But the latest news of discovery of drugs, a large amount of cash and scores of mobile phones following a prison raid by a posse of policemen leaves readers dumbfounded.

A simple conclusion is that nothing has changed during the last 20 days and inmates could have anything they cherish. Preferential treatment has a price which the nexus with prison staff can facilitate. The privileged treatment for criminals and supply of contraband within the prison raises serious questions if the state prisons befit the definition of correctional homes. Such allegations with regard to Shashikala, close aide of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, too had been confirmed by a probe ordered then. The porosity of the prison the new discoveries expose should be enough to convince that the rot is deeper than imagined in the prison administration and official-criminal nexus flourishes with invisible patronage from above.