To quote the words of John F Kennedy himself, “The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened”. The one thing we all need to understand is that even prisoners are human beings, and every human being is privy to the protection of their basic human rights. Even when detained and kept in legal custody he is a human being who can be redeemed back to civil life. Sometimes a difficult task, sometimes another opportunity is all he needs. Unfortunately none of these rights are upheld in a jail in most cases. There are abuses and torture the prisoners are subject to and they are silent victims and witnesses to it who’s words do not have much power. Some common right violations which occur in prison are sexual assault or torture in the form of cruel and unusual punishment by prison guards are, prisoners kept in unsanitary and unsafe prisons, denying medical attention and care to the prisoners, prisoners prevented from disclosing to anyone their prison conditions where disclosure will lead to punishments and torture by the guards or supervising authority. In all these situations, we see that the main reason these prisoners are denied their rights are because of the unfair and cruel practices of the prison authorities and guards. Yes a certain amount of strictness and harshness is necessary to be keeping these violaters in place, because ultimately it is some wrong they committed which has landed them in prison, but that does not mean one uses inhumane methods and vent their personal anger or aggression on prisoners to teach them a lesson. In most cases its almost sadistic how guards torture the prisoners into submission. The root cause of these violations is one, disobedience by the prisoners and two, which may or may not be true, mere release of their personal frustrations on prisoners as they have an upper hand and authority over them. In India there are no prison rights as such, but when a prisoner named Sunil batra, wrote a letter to the Supreme court of India, which was fortunate enough to be brought to to light, India awakened to the plight of prisoners and the pathetic conditions they were subject to. Batra wrote of the sadistic ways of a prison guard who pierced a baton into the anus of a prisoner as a form of punishment which resulted in critical injuries to him and his death later on. This horrific incident opened up the case of Sunil batra v Delhi administration where the supreme court took cognizance of the letter and issued prison reforms, giving prisoners access to courts and speedy trials and basic rights. India is a rising democratic power and we the citizens need to make sure that its rising towards the right direction. There is no room for tyrants and we the people need to make sure not to let these parasites suck the blood out of us.
