Hyderabad: The Telangana Prison Department recently ushered in the country’s first psychological screening of the mental health of prisoners at the Sangareddy District Jail. The screening revealed that almost 25 per cent of the prisoners screened had anxiety and a very large number (51.93 per cent) had mania.
Initially, approximately 187 prisoners were screened, of whom seven were female and 174 were male.
Recently, an inmate at the Chanchalguda Prison, V.V. Srihari committed suicide due to depression. This incident among others heralded the initiative for such a programme. Srihari was sent to prison under IPC Sections 467 and 511 in a property dispute case with his family members.
In addition, Srihari was also investigated and further charged under IPC Sections 302 and 307 for beating and killing his mother and injuring his brother with an intention to kill. Preceding this new development in his case, Srihari began to feel very defeated and depressed.
During the wee hours one morning, Srihari woke up and went to the washroom, where he committed suicide by hanging himself from a ventilator.
He was immediately rushed to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) where he was declared dead.
Although the prison was equipped to maintain surveillance on all inmates at all times, it would be a violation of human rights if the bathrooms were subjected to surveillance. This made the bathrooms a blind spot for guards.
Just like Srihari, a number of inmates, upon realisation of their mistakes and bad choices, become victims of mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.
A lot of inmates also suffer from manic disorders.
Deputy Superintendent of Prisons P. Saibaba said, “We have programs to educate inmates, both illiterate and literate. They are taught how to read and write in any language of preference. This allows the inmates to have something important to look forward to when feeling down.”
The prison environment is thus conducive due to a number of activities but it still remains suffocating for some inmates.
Officials claimed that even a sane man could develop deviant ideas in such a trapped environment.
Director General (Prisons) V.K. Singh said, “In view of such incidents, the prison has taken up a first-of-its-kind psychological evaluation programme. At Sangareddy, all prisoners were evaluated for their mental health by a battery of psychologists from Osmania University and Counselling Centre University. By conducting such evaluations one can identify the mental health status of prisoners and inevitably address a crucial and important objective, i.e. suicide prevention.”
