Legislation on Prisons
The colonial Government had through Regulation III of 1818 passed on the 7 April of the same year, for the confinement of state prisoner adopted a procedure to place any individual under personal restraint against whom there were no sufficient grounds to initiate judicial proceeding. Act No. IX of 1894 was passed by the nd Governor General of India in Council on the 22 March. The said enactment came after Bombay Act II of 1874 which was applicable to civil jails in the Presidency of Bombay under the provisions of about eight sections i.e. Section 9 to 16. The st Prisons Act was came into force on the 1 July 1894 comprising twelve chapters and sixty-two sections and detailing the provisions for maintenance of prisons, the duties of prison staff, discipline, rights and obligations of prisoners.
Having received the assent of the Governor General on the 11 March 1897 an Act VIII of 1897 was passed to amend the law relating to reformatory schools and to make further provisions for dealing with youthful offenders. After enactment of this law, the Reformatory Schools Act, 1876 was repealed.
Act III of 1900, the Prisoners Act, received the assent of the Governor General nd on 2 February 1900 and came into force at once. It consolidated the existing statutes relating to prisoners confined by order of a court. It extended to the whole of British India inclusive of British Balochistan, the Santal Parganas and the Pargana of Spiti. The Act included nine parts and fifty-three sections had the guidance on admission, removal, discharge, attendance in court and employment of prisoners.
The Punjab Borstal Act, 1926 received the assent of the Governor on the 22 th July 1926 and that of the Governor General on the 16 August 1926 and was first th published in the Punjab Government Gazette of the 27 August 1926. It was an Act to make provision for the establishment and regulation of Borstal Institutions in the Punjab and for the detention and training of Adolescent offenders therein already received the sanction of the Governor General under sub-section (3) of section 80-A of the Government of India Act. The Act contains thirty-six sections to discuss various aspects of prisoners under twenty-one years of age.
The 1932 Jail Manual received the assent of the Governor in the council of st Punjab on 31 December 1932. The Manual included forty-two chapters, eleven hundred and sixty rules, twenty supplement appendices and a comprehensive index. All the rules framed in the Manual are under the authority of section 59 of the Prisons Act 1894. The Manual included special mention of the post of Factory Manager, provisions for the appointment of European Warders for European prisoners, for the role of Senior Assistant Superintendent, for documents of bails or surety bonds, for duties of convict monitors, for punishments like Transportation for life, accidental or unnatural deaths, details about state, Leprosy and European prisoners and their treatment.
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