Monday, April 12, 2010

India: Open Jail for Women

From BBC News:
Yerawada prison is a place of contrasts.

In one part of the 17-acre complex near the city of Pune in the Indian state of Maharashtra, 300 incarcerated women barely see the light of day and live in cramped, unhygienic conditions.

But another part of the prison is currently undergoing a makeover. Here, women will soon be allowed to roam the premises and farmland in relative freedom.

This will be India's first open prison for women.

Such jails have existed for men in India since the 1950s - the idea is that well-behaved inmates are transferred to the facility as a reward for their good behaviour after serving a few years of their sentence.

The female prisoners at Yerawada's open jail will get paid employment outdoors - mostly agricultural work. More importantly, the remainder of their sentence will be cut by half.

1 comment:

Isabelle said...

Thank you for highlighting this story about a small step forward for women. It is great to see that, though this has been available to men for many years, these women will have something closer to the treatment they deserve.