Training of Trainers commences at Central Prison-I, Puzhal
PRISM aims to make the rehabilitation programmes, running in the prisons, self-sustaining. With this goal in mind, the idea of Training the Trainers came about in the middle of last year. The idea was to train convicts that are serving life sentences, or long terms, to conduct the rehabilitation programmes within their prisons, for petty offenders. The benefits of this are two-fold – the convicts learn a new skill and there is a ready pool of resources available to serve as trainers. Besides, those under remand are likely to relate better to convicts than to trainers from the outside.
The next step was to identify a suitable trainer to conduct the TOT (Training Of Trainers) programme. On a visit to the Academy of Prisons and Correctional Administration (APCA), Vellore, the PRISM team met Beulah Emmanuel, a Senior Faculty member of APCA. When she learned of PRISM’s requirement, she introduced the PRISM team to her husband, Mr. Emmanuel Angelo. Mr. Angelo is a veteran in the field of training. He has vast experience training for an international organization and for the Police department at Vellore.
The months that followed saw a flurry of activity initiated by Mr. & Mrs. Angelo’s agreement to conduct the TOT programme. In addition to convicts from Central Prison-II in Puzhal and Central Prison in Madurai, where the rehabilitation programme is already running, the Central Prisons at Coimbatore, Vellore and Trichy were also earmarked for the TOT programme. The District Legal Services Authority, Tiruvallur and the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA) came forward to sponsor the programme as well as coordinate with the Prison Department. PRISM recommended that 5 convicts from each of the 5 earmarked prisons be identified based on their educational qualification, aptitude and communication skills and good behaviour. The team at PRISM was pleasantly surprised to find that the District Legal Services Authority, Tiruvallur was so encouraged by the programme that they extended the scope to include the other Central Prisons at Palayamkottai, Cuddalore and Salem and consequently 5 members from each of these prisons were selected. The TOT programme now trains 40 convicts from all the Central Prisons in Tamil Nadu.
The TOT programme was inaugurated on March 15th, 2020, at Central Prison-I, Puzhal, under the auspices of Hon’ble Mr. Justice P N Prakash. A Murugesan, DIG Prisons, gave the Welcome Address. Feliciations were given by Sunil Kumar Singh, DGP Prisons, K Ayyappan, Member of the High Court Committee, J Selvanadhan, PDJ Tiruvallur and K Rajasekar, Member Secretary TNSLSA. The vote of thanks was given by G Saraswati, Secretary District Legal Services Authority, Tiruvallur followed by the first session for the convicts, conducted by Mr. & Mrs. Angelo. The trainees were enthusiastic, responsive and eager to learn. The programme got off to a good start and is scheduled to finish on March 28th 2020.