Prison Offences

(1) The discipline in Prisons has to be maintained with fairness and firmness. It has to cover every aspect of life in the prisons. A punishment for indiscipline has to be balanced in relation to the gravity of the violation. A positive approach towards prison discipline involves not only a strict adherence to rules and regulations but also a fair, just and equitable handling of prisoners on the part of the staff. (2) After their admission, all prisoners should be informed of their rights, duties and disciplinary requirements in the prisons, in a language understandable to them. This aspect shall be displayed on a board accessible to prisoners. (3) The following acts are declared to be prison offences when committed by a prisoner, namely: - (i) endangering the security and custody of a prison in any way, by a willful or negligent act and shall include tampering in anyway with prison walls, building, bars, rocks and keys, lamps or lights or with any other security and custody measures; (ii) doing any act calculated to create unnecessary alarm in the minds of other prisoners; (iii) doing or omitting to any act with intent to cause to oneself any illness, injury or disability: (iv) omitting to report the commission of any prison offence; (v) breaking law and order and discipline; (vi) planning, instigating, abetting, directly or indirectly, in the commission of any prison offence; (vii) refusing, omitting or conniving to abide by standards of behavior, rules and regulations and lawful instructions and orders; (viii) failing to assist in the maintenance of prison discipline; (ix) failing to give assistance to a prison official when called to do so; (x) making false, malicious and groundless written or verbal complaint against prison officials; (xi) committing nuisance or mischief of any kind; (xii) quarrelling with other prisoners; (xiii) smoking; (xiv) attacking, assaulting and causing injuries to others; (xv) participating in a riot or mutiny, abetting another prisoner to do the same; (xvi) escaping or attempting to escape from prison or legal custody or failing to report to prison officials about attempted escapes; (xvii) possessing, hiding, smuggling or attempting to smuggle, obtaining, giving or receiving or bartering contraband articles, failing to report to prison officials about contraband articles; (xviii) stealing/damaging/destroying/disfiguring/misappropriating any Government property or another prisoners' articles and property; (xix) failing to report at once any loss, breakage or injury which the prisoner may accidentally have caused, to prison property or implements; (xx) tampering with or defacing identity cards, records or documents; (xxi) breach of the conditions of leave and emergency release; (xxii) refusing to eat food or going on hunger strike; (xxiii) eating or apportioning any food not assigned to him or taking from or adding to the portions assigned to another prisoner; (xxiv) willfully or negligently destroying or spoiling food or throwing it away without orders; (xxv) introducing into food or drink any thing likely to render it unpalatable; (xxvi) unauthorized cooking; (xxvii) violating rules and regulations framed for the systematic running of the canteen; (xxviii) bartering canteen articles; (xxix) being idle, careless or negligent at work, refusing to work, malingering, disturbing other prisoners at work or in barracks; (xxx) manufacturing any article without the knowledge or permission of a prison officer; (xxxi) performing any portion of the task allotted to another prisoner or obtaining unauthorized assistance of another prisoner in the performance of one's own task; (xxxii) apportioning to any prisoner any part of the task to be performed by him/her; (xxxiii) mixing or adding a foreign substances to the materials issued for work; (xxxiv) willfully disabling himself from labour; (xxxv) converting or attempting to convert, a prisoner to a different religious faith; (xxxvi) willfully hurting other's religious feeling, beliefs and faiths; (xxxvii) agitating or acting on the basis of caste or religious prejudices; (xxxviii) having any communication, in writing or by word or by signs, without permission, with any outsider, an under-trial prisoner, detenus, civil prisoner and approvers; (xxxix) sending messages surreptitiously by writing or verbally; (xl) participating in or organizing unauthorized activities like gambling and betting; (xli) using indecent, abusive, insolent, threatening or improper language, being disrespectful, making indecent or vulgar acts or gestures; (xlii) soiling or defiling any place or article; (xliii) loitering or lingering, leaving the appointed area or work-group without permission; (xliv) failing to assist or preventing another person from assisting prison officials in suppressing violence, assault, riot, mutiny, attack, gross personal violence or any other emergencies;