THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major decision, the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services Department has put a full stop to classes conducted by religious groups for inmates inside jails after the outfits were reportedly found misusing the sessions.
In the past, religious groups used to conduct moral classes for prisoners. Director General of Prisons Balram Kumar Upadhyay revoked permissions for the same earlier this year and ordered conducting motivation classes instead. However, in some prisons, religious classes apparently continued uninterrupted under the garb of the motivation classes.
Now, the department has issued a circular to prison superintendents sternly directing them not to let the inclusion of religious topics in the motivational lessons.
“Motivation classes are being conducted for all prisoners. Religious classes should not be imparted as motivation classes. Prison superintendents should pay close attention to this while selecting topics and resource persons for the classes,” said the order issued by DIG, Prisons Headquarters, Vinod Kumar M K on Balram’s behalf.
Vinod said the motivation classes are handled by eminent personalities and those who succeeded in life braving various odds.
“Lists of such people are prepared by each prison and sent to us. Barring religion, eminent people from all sectors are included in the list. We are not giving permission to any religious programmes in prisons as per the director general’s orders,” the DIG said.
Denial of nod to religious groups sparked row earlier
The department had earlier decided to freeze the nod granted to religious groups for conducting moral classes for inmates on technical grounds. The decision kicked up a row after the management of various churches approached Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan ahead of Easter in April, alleging that the prison officials were denying them permission to hold Easter-day rituals. Following this, the government directed the department to relax the rules for Easter.
NO NEGATIVITY, PLEASE!
The prisons department circular asked officials to screen the content of counselling classes to prevent negative thoughts among inmates. While taking classes on topics such as suicide, care should be given not to use words that sound negative, it said.