Latur District Jail in Nandgaon
On 26th July 2023, I visited Latur District Jail at Nandgaon. After I have been appointed as a Assistant Legal Aid Defence Counsel in Latur District Court, I have a duty to visit district jail on every Wednesday and ask the prisoners their problems relating to trial, remand and bail. That day for the first time I saw a jail. Jail is not a good place.
Jail or prison is one of the worst thing on this earth. There exist good as well as bad people in this world. Some people are honest, hard working, polite and moral. Whereas, other take the path of immortality and crime. They commit theft, robbery, murder, kidnapping, rape, violence and disturb the peace in the society. Such people are sent to jail as a punishment. It is the state's preventive measure to keep society peaceful and prevent the wrongdoer from commiting crime again.
There are around 366 prisoners in Latur District Jail. Most are undertrials who are waiting for their final judgement. Some prisoners convicted of lesser punishment are also lodged in this jail. Convicts punished with life imprisonment or murder are sent to Harsul jail in Aurangabad or Yerwada jail in Pune.
It was around 11:30 a.m. when I reached the jail. All prisoners were locked up into their barracks. After my arrival police on duty spoke on mike to prisoners, "A Legal Aid advocate has come to you, those who need any help come to your barrack gate." I did talk to some prisoners. Some wanted to come out on bail. Some wanted to tell their parents to visit them, some wanted to see their case status, some were silent and relax. Jail rooms were not much clean. There was smell of smoking in every barracks. Around 15 to 20 were lodged in a barrack. Young convicts and old aged convicts were lodged in different barracks. Criminals who committed serious offences were locked up in Anda cell, a separate jail cell for hardcore criminals. There was no privacy at all. Some were playing carrom board, some were watching TV, some were reading newspaper.
Some prisoners work also. They are paid monthly wages Rs 700 which is deposited in their name. When they are released from jail, they get this entire amount.
I asked one convict, "Why are you here?, What did you do?" He said, "I had given a cheque of Rs 5,00,000 to someone. It was dishonoured due to insufficient fund. I couldn't return the money I owned and then I was sentenced to 2 months of imprisonment and fine. I couldn't pay fine amount so I am serving further 3 months imprisonment for failure to pay fine. After one month I will be released from the jail."
I also went to Anda cell. There were around 20 inmates in the cell. They had committed a robbery. They stole over Rs 26 lakhs from a man who had saved money for his daughter's marriage. I asked them whether they need a lawyer but nobody spoke anything. They had already engaged a lawyer. After a round to jail, I had a conversation with one police. He shared many stories of criminals how they commit crime and come out of jail. He also expressed displeasure over providing free legal aid to habitual and hardcore criminals.
This was my first jail visit. I came to learn many things about jail life that day. I realised that a life without freedom is not a life at all. In my words, jail is not less than hell. There is no dignified life inside jail.
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