Services Dispensed By Prisons Staff in India: Challenges and Impact

Abstract

The functioning of Indian prisons has always been in question and certainly it is, in the present day working environment as well. The functioning of prisons has a direct link with the performance of its staff. The prisoners and prisons staff constitute a group within which their behaviour with each other as well as with the authorities is of great importance. Prisons staff have several roles with a focus on control and security within a high risk environment balanced with health care for people with complex characteristics. They have to dispense their services in the prevailing environment of overcrowding, congestion, and inadequacy of prisons staff. They have to face many times the different attitudes and threats of hardcore professional criminals. Thus, the prison authorities find maintaining law and order as one of the most difficult and challenging task in the prisons. These challenges affect not only their performance appraisal but also their own wellbeing and family life. In this backdrop this paper attempts to discuss the adverse conditions in which prisons staff dispense their services and highlight the challenges that impact on their performance of duties as well as of their all wellbeing.