CHENNAI: Madras University has invited candidates to apply for its research programme that aims to re-integrate prisoners into society. The department of psychology will be sending its research scholars to directly interact with prisoners over the course of the programme.
Qualified candidates will be selected by the department to work on four major areas: physical and mental health problems among prison population, prevention of suicide in prison, drug de-addiction in prison and role of non- governmental organisations in prison welfare.
“The project primarily aims to rehabilitate, restore and re-integrate prisoners with society. Prisoners are isolated and from the rest of society and are clubbed with other offenders. Equipping them to successfully re-integrate with society takes time and effort. This project will help the government explore avenues to do the same in order to ensure that they do not become repeat offenders,” said S Karunanidhi, professor and head of department of psychology.
While this project called, “Research on Prisons and Rehabilitation of Prisoners” is in its second phase now, the first phase concentrated on capacity building during pre-release stage and psycho-social factors that drive young adults and repeat offenders to commit crimes.
As part of the capacity building of prisoners, the researchers gave a baseline training programme for select sample size of offenders, said Yuvaraj Subramaniyam, one of the four researchers in the project, who is also an assistant professor at Christ, Bengaluru.
“Apart from analysing their skills, we also understood their financial needs outside the prison,” he said adding that he took a positive approach towards rehabilitation.
Subramaniyam said that research on capacity building for women yielded slightly different results among women, as many of their skills were untapped. “Women, particularly those from lower strata of society, are often left in an house-hold environment where they are ignorant of the skills they possess. This becomes a problem when they get out of prison,” he said.
A consolidated stipend of Rs 23,000 per month will be paid for qualified Ph.D candidates and Rs 18,000 per month for students with Masters degree with background in psychology, sociology or criminology. Interested candidates can send their resume to the Department of psychology, University of Madras, by November 15.