3.2 Punishment and prisons notes

1. 3.2.1Punishment: definition, nature and theories

   Punishment is pain or loss that an organised society deliberately imposes, through lawful authority, on a person found guilty of breaking its law; the theories differ on why it is imposed: to pay back (retributive), to frighten (deterrent), to disable (preventive), to cure (reformative) or to atone (expiatory).

   Standard · 14 min · Full course
2. 3.2.2Corporal and capital punishment, sentencing and pardon

   India has abolished judicial corporal punishment but keeps the death penalty for the "rarest of rare" cases (Bachan Singh, 1980); life imprisonment means the whole of natural life unless the government remits it, and the President (Article 72) and Governor (Article 161) can pardon or reduce sentences.

   Standard · 15 min · Full course
3. 3.2.3Prisons in India: Prisons Act 1894, Model Prison Manual 2016, Model Prisons Act 2023 and the prison as a community

   India still runs its prisons under the colonial Prisons Act, 1894, but prisons are a State List subject, so each State has its own rules and manual; the Centre guides them through the Model Prison Manual 2016 and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act 2023, while sociologists study the prison as a closed community with its own culture (Clemmer's prisonisation, Goffman's total institution, Bentham's Panopticon).

   Standard · 16 min · Full course
4. 3.2.4Prison programmes and reforms: committees, prisoners' rights and international standards

   Indian prison policy moved from deterrence (Macaulay's committee, 1836) to reformation (Indian Jails Committee, 1919–20) and correctional service (Mulla Committee, 1980–83); the Supreme Court made prisoners' fundamental rights enforceable through Articles 32 and 226, and the UN's Nelson Mandela Rules and Bangkok Rules set the international floor for treatment of prisoners.

   Standard · 15 min · Full course

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