Family Counseling Center Project

Life of a woman in a prison seems to be very hard and bad. Efforts made by activists to know life behind the bars, confirms this. Since almost all offenders are eventually released from prison, as relatively few serve life sentences, it is incumbent upon society, as represented by the criminal justice and mental health systems, to provide services that attempt to prepare the prisoner for resumption of life in the outside world.

A survey report done in 2014 mentions, there are 1387 functioning jails in India having a total capacity to house 356,561 prisoners. As of the same date, there were 418,536 inmates in jails across in India. Males at 400,855 make up 95.8% of prisoners while females at 17,681 represent 4.2%. FAMILY COUNSELING CENTER PROJECT, Female Wing, Central Jail, Vadodara was initiated in 2004.

Prisoners often refuse to take part in rehabilitative programs. However this program motivates their involvement and with proper counseling helps them to overcome this resistance.Various programs like recreational, entertainment, awareness activities for femal inmates are organised to help them develop and gain awareness. This helps them to communicate better, and to understand and resolve differences.

The major problem that arrives here is for the children of these inmates. These children may not know the whereabouts of his or her mother and may have been told many stories to cover up the fact that mother is in jail. This kind of deception leads to confusion and feelings of rejection. With the loss of a mother a child can experience feelings of fear, guilt and develop various emotional problems. This project makes home visits and help such cases. It helps and boosts the self-esteem of the women and makes them strong to face and relive the normal life in society, after she comes out of the prison.