VELLORE: The Academy of Prisons and Correctional Administration (APCA), Vellore, on Tuesday held the convocation ceremony for the ninth batch of its three-month basic training course for probation officers at the KLN Reddy Memorial Hall on the academy campus. Ten probation officers successfully completed the programme.
Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, Vellore Range, G Shanmugasundaram, was the chief guest, while APCA Director B Pradeep presided over the event.
Officer J Bala Subramaniyan received the medal for being the "Best in Penology, Probation, Parole and Aftercare", sponsored by the Andhra Pradesh government, while Officer U Mueena Khatoon was awarded the Kerala government's medal for being the "Best in Subjects".
According to an official release, the batch was unique, as it comprised officers with service experience ranging from six months to over a decade. The trainees came from diverse academic backgrounds, including engineering, social sciences, humanities and mathematics.
The course was aimed at preparing officers for professional and reformative roles within the criminal justice system. It covered subjects such as social work, criminology, victimology, probation, prisons and corrections, sociology, psychology, human rights, the Constitution of India and the new criminal laws. Special modules on counselling, de-addiction counselling and mental health counselling were also included.
The training programme featured activity-based and scenario-based learning, lectures, group discussions, case studies, presentations, field visits and study tours. As part of the course, trainees also attended a two-day online orientation on correctional social work conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. The sessions covered topics such as the role of probation within prisons and correctional systems, global best practices in probation, desistance theory, social investigation reports, and emerging trends in community corrections.