The Superintendent and the Records He Keeps
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
Syllabus topic 6, "Imprisonment"
Pages 542 to 546 of 806
In one line
Five words in section 11 give the Superintendent the whole of a prison, and section 12 gives him the five records that are the only check on how he runs it.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 11(1) of the Prisons Act 1894 provides that, subject to the orders of the Inspector General, the Superintendent shall manage the prison in all matters relating to discipline, labour, expenditure, punishment and control. Section 12 requires him to keep five records: a register of prisoners admitted, a book showing when each prisoner is to be released, a punishment book, a visitors book, and a record of money and articles taken from prisoners, together with such other records as State rules prescribe.
The five heads of management
Learn them as five, because MU's short notes reward a candidate who can enumerate.
| Head | What it covers in practice |
|---|---|
| Discipline | Prison offences under section 45 and the punishments in section 46 |
| Labour | Employment under sections 34 to 36, and the labour rules under section 59 |
| Expenditure | The prison's money, constrained by section 10, which forbids any interest in supply contracts |
| Punishment | Section 48(1): the Superintendent alone awards, and no subordinate officer may award any punishment whatever |
| Control | Everything else, including separation, association, segregation and the daily regime |
There is no sixth head, and in particular there is no head of welfare, education or reformation. That is the Act's character, and it is worth saying: the office as the statute defines it is custodial.
The powers the Act gives him by name
Reading the Act for the word "Superintendent" produces the office's real content.
- Section 8: all officers of a prison obey his directions.
- Section 11(1): management of the prison, subject to the Inspector General.
- Section 12: keeping the records.
- Section 13: the Medical Officer acts subject to his control.
- Section 14: the Medical Officer's report on a prisoner whose mind is or is likely to be injuriously affected goes to him, and his orders on it go with the report to the Inspector General.
- Section 16: he may permit the Jailer in writing to live outside the prison.
- Sections 19 and 22: he grants leave of absence.
- Section 46: he may examine any person touching a prison offence, determine it, and punish it.
- Section 48: he awards the punishments, subject to the Inspector General's previous confirmation for separate confinement over one month.
- Section 51(2): he records the substance of the evidence, the prisoner's defence and the finding with reasons where whipping is awarded, and initials the entries with the Jailer under section 51(3).
- Section 52: he may forward a prisoner to a Magistrate where the offence is not adequately punishable by anything he can award.
- Section 56: he may confine a prisoner in irons where necessary.
The rest of this chapter
Module one is free. The rest of this chapter comes with the LL.M. Criminal Law and Criminal Administration Semester 3 notes.
You are reading a chapter from a later module. Everything in module one of every subject stays free, and so does every question paper and the syllabus.
Notes + Solved papers: ₹798 Already bought it? Sign in
Or notes only: ₹499
Or solved papers only: ₹499
Free either way: question papers, the syllabus, and module one of every subject.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.