Second Chance Fellowship and U-Turn Programme sensitise inmates on the need to support each other emotionally, while also assessing their own mental state

New Delhi: When Akhilesh Bharti (19) was returning to Delhi after a trip to Haridwar and Raipur in February 2017, little did he know that his world was about to turn upside down.

As the train pulled into the Nizamuddin Railway Station in South Delhi that morning, Bharti and his friend gathered their belongings and walked towards the exit. On the platform, Crime Branch Police surrounded them suddenly, took away their phones, and handcuffed and bundled them into a police van. A thousand questions ran through Bharti’s mind. He was slapped into silence when he asked why they were arrested and where they were being taken.

At the Malviya Nagar Crime Branch headquarters, officials told a dazed and sobbing Bharti that they would ask him a few questions and release him. He was separated from his friend and taken to a different room, where policemen in plainclothes questioned him about his whereabouts before and during the trip. He answered all the questions and asked to see his family. He was assured that he would meet his family soon.

That night, while having dinner, he heard loud cries from the adjacent room and realised that his friend was being beaten. “Am I next?” he wondered as he lost his appetite. Though he was never beaten, he remained frozen with fear the entire time.

The next morning, they were presented before a senior police officer and made to sign papers. “It was all written in English. I could not understand what the papers said. I was zoned out and signed the papers under pressure.”

He noticed his friend's swollen face, which had several cuts. And abruptly, he was told that he was being taken to court and should inform his family. Still in a confused stupor, he called home and informed his father. Looking back, Bharti realises how tortuous it must have been for his family to locate him, as they had no idea which court he was being taken to and what time he would be there.

Since he lived in Subhash Nagar in West Delhi, his family assumed he would be taken to the Tis Hazari court in the west zone. Instead, he was taken to Karkardooma court because he was arrested in Nizamuddin, which falls in a different zone. He spent all day waiting to be presented in court while wondering when his family would finally arrive.

Bharti remembered that an elderly policeman took pity on him and allowed him to use his cell phone to call his family and inform them about his whereabouts. However, by the time his family’s lawyer arrived, Akhilesh had already been brought before the judge, who sent him to judicial custody.

Around 8 pm, he was placed in a van and driven to Tihar jail. At this point, he learned the reason for his arrest. “The policemen told me that they found 60 kg of ganja in my friend’s bag,” he said.

Akhilesh interacting with inmates (Photo - Puja Bhattacharjee, 101Reporters)

Surviving the system

He was handed over to a sewadar, an inmate, usually a convict, who helps the prison staff. “He displayed extreme aggression, reacting harshly even to simple inquiries,” recalled Bharti.

In another room where he had to provide details for mulakaat (meeting with family), he took some time to respond, not knowing what mulakaat was. “Are you an orphan?" the sewadar yelled.

When Bharti inquired how many names he should list, the sewadar retorted, “Give me the names. I will decide who to list.”

He was then searched thoroughly “using many machines”, followed by a humiliating strip search.

He stated that mental health would begin to deteriorate as soon as a person entered prison. The lack of answers leads to significant frustration, loss of sleep and appetite. Around 60 inmates are crowded into a single cell. New arrivals are isolated for the first two months to help them acclimate to prison life.

He was most shocked when a brawl erupted between two rival gangs one afternoon in the canteen. “All the inmates were immediately locked up for the whole day,” said Bharti.

An even more violent fight erupted the same night. Sirens wailed as the prison staff and sewadars hurried around. All inmates were confined to their wards for the following days.

“Eight to ten boys would gang up and beat one boy. Seeing it happen, I felt so helpless,” he said. Many boys would wear a bloody face, blackened eyes. In severe cases, they have their cheeks slashed with blades.

The worst part was that there was no redressal. “If you complained to the authorities, the retaliation would be severe. Jail staff cannot save you,” he said.

Bharti slowly sank into a deep depression. No case update, uncertainty about the next court date, and not being able to see his family added to his mental agony.

Fortunately, he got support from his fellow undertrials, who encouraged him to have hope. “We went for walks, and they shared their experiences. We bonded over our lives outside prison,” he said.

The latest Prison Statistics India indicates a troubling 22% increase in mentally ill inmates. As of July 2021, 21 out of 28 states have no psychologists or psychiatrists in prisons, resulting in only one psychologist or psychiatrist for every 16,503 prisoners.

Turning prison pain into reform

During this time, Bharti also met members of the Turn Your Concern Into Action (TYCIA) Foundation, an organisation dedicated to criminal justice issues.

In 2017, Sudhir Yadav, the then Director General of Tihar jail, invited TYCIA Foundation co-founder Mohit Raj to discuss potential interventions for the young male inmates aged 18 to 21 in jail no 5 of Tihar jail. After assessing the needs of 600 inmates, it provided recommendations that led to the birth of Project Second Chance in April 2017. It identified incarcerated individuals who are on the path of reformation and are about to be released soon.

“We enrol them in our Second Chance Fellowship programme. As fellows, they identify a systemic issue that they wish to work on,” said Raj.

The fellows use their prison experience to develop innovative ideas for positive change. “One of our findings was that credible people already exist inside the prison. They are on the path of reformation and have the potential to reform other prisoners as well. We need to create opportunities for them to become changemakers inside the system.” 

Under the programme, two sets of fellows — an ex-prisoner and a young professional with expertise in criminology, law or sociology — come together and participate in a full-time fellowship to design solutions for prison reform.

In 2020, after securing bail, Bharti joined the Second Chance Fellowship programme. Due to his personal mental health challenges and the absence of assistance, Bharti devised a strategy to assist inmates with mental illnesses. He charted a prisoner's emotional progression from day one using stories and sketches. He then created training materials to educate inmates on supporting each other's emotions.

In 2017, when Bharti was in jail as an undertrial, it was difficult to access a mental health counsellor. Though the counsellor was supposed to see inmates between 10 am and 5 pm, they often came late or in the second half. “Every day, around 30 of us lined up, and we got around 30 minutes to an hour with the counsellor. I tried for a few days and then gave up,” he said.

Bharti now leads the U-Turn programme as a Second Chance fellow in Dehradun District Jail, Sudhowala, Uttarakhand. Under this programme, the prison staff helps the TYCIA Foundation select inmates who display leadership qualities. “These inmates counsel new ones within 24 hours to help break myths surrounding prison life. Those with existing mental health issues are given extra support,” Bharti detailed.

In the next step, the new inmates are informed about potential aspects of prison life and upcoming challenges, such as preparing for their first court date and navigating prison facilities.

Bharti, along with another fellow, has created stories through illustrations that depict different aspects of prison life, starting from the inmates' entry through the prison gates. The inmates are given these stories and asked to match them with the corresponding emotions the situation might evoke.

“For example, if the story depicts an inmate’s upcoming court date, they will match it to feeling hopeful,” said Bharti. The purpose of this activity is to help prisoners express their emotions, which, if kept bottled up, may lead to aggression and self-harm.

The third aspect is a workshop on anger management, conflict resolution and self-care. The floors are marked in different colours, such as blue, green, orange, red and yellow, in the shape of footprints, for this activity. The inmates are asked to stand on the floor with their eyes closed and take a step forward if their emotions are positive and step backwards if they register negative emotions.

“For example, if the question is, ‘How did you feel after first coming to prison?’ and they lost appetite or sleep, they would step backwards,” he explained.

After all the questions are asked, the inmates can open their eyes and see which colour zone they are in. Inmates in the green and blue zones are in a stable mental state, whereas orange and red signify disturbed emotional and mental states. Yellow falls in between.

“Following this exercise, we hold a discussion where inmates in the green and blue zones are asked what actions they took to help themselves. They are then given a checklist to record their emotions daily to see if things are improving,” he said.  These discussions help the red and orange zone people understand how they can help themselves, learning from the strategies employed by the green and blue zone people.  

There are challenges, though. As the resources at their disposal are limited, they cannot keep a check on everyone individually. When inmates display extreme negative emotions and a tendency for self-harm, they are referred to the prison medical department.

According to Bharti, inmates need support from someone who understands their situation and has experience within the prison system, as prisoners cannot be fully honest about their situations with someone outside the prison.

U-turn also informs prisoners of all the good things available inside the jail, such as games, libraries, computer education, and facilities to teach fellow inmates, which helps break down negative thoughts and inspire positivity. This programme is being expanded to prisons across Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Now targeting ten more prisons, including Nuh prison, Haridwar prison and other prisons in Uttarakhand.

Though the approach to addressing prison issues is innovative, it is not without challenges. "Institutionalising the interventions is crucial for their success. The initiatives designed by our fellows can only scale to the level they deserve if the prison department adopts and adapts them,” said Raj. “We are addressing this by creating standard operating procedures in a way that the government can adopt them in the future. Our goal is to institutionalise these initiatives.”

The foundation tried to conduct this programme in Tihar jail no 5, where Bharti was lodged, but did not get access as they do not grant entry to undertrials. Bharti stays in touch with his friends from Tihar jail and hopes to get them involved in Project Second Chance.

This story was originally published as a part of Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Cover Photo - Representative image/ AI-generated using Canva