Prison in India

There are no pictures with this post because I couldn't take any in Kadapa Central Prison today. I went with a small group of people led by a priest who has a prison ministry. One thousand men and about 50 women are incarcerated there. Like the US, they have a kitchen, a training program, education programs, exercise, etc. Unlike the US, if the women enter while pregnant, they keep their children until age 5. At age 5, they are taken to a government orphanage until their family can reclaim them. Seven children were in prison with their mothers. The women are housed in a small facility behind thick walls on the prison campus. The children are not free to roam beyond the tiny yard of their mother's prison home. They know nothing of the outside world. Like the classrooms and the orphanages I have seen, there are no beds, tables or chairs. Just a dormitory where everyone sits on the floor and sleeps on a mat. The women wear a white sari with blue trim. the ment wear cotton pants and shirts with a blue stripe.

No men are allowed in the women's facility at anytime, ever. So the women went inside to visit with the female inmates. I don't know one word of Telegu and I wouldn't have known what to say in any case. But I know how to smile and sometimes that's all you need to touch someone. I held three women in my arms while they cried. When I was called away, they asked me to bless them. They bowed their heads and I made the sign of the cross on their foreheads and I kissed them. I watched women petitioning us to take their children and give them a home and an education and a chance in life. No one ever asked for anything for themselves. No one protested their innocence or their conditions. It's impossible to watch a woman try to hand you her child and not be moved. Due to a coordinated effort, we are making arrangements for 12 children. It's a drop in the ocean, but at least it's 12 more that will have a chance.

In the end, it was not the prison that scared me. It was the Indian Justice system. Their justice system takes a Clan approach due to the caste system. If a person is accused of a crime, a very wide net is cast and members of their entire family can land in prison in retribution for the crime. Having an alibi at the time of a crime is of no consequence, corruption is rampant and the burden of proof is on the accused in a "guilty until proven innocent" system. It was a frightening day.