and friends is another cause for inmates to become sad. As an inmate explained, “I was living with my family and suddenly all changed when they put me in prison. I felt I was dead. I couldn’t feel myself.” It was observed that inmates feared being subjected to sexual assault with an inmate from WCP saying, “There was another senior prisoner in the room. He gave me two pillows to sleep. He asked me to sleep beside him. While I was sleeping, he started touching me and I got scared. I kept crying.” Another inmate from JRP described his first night in prison saying that they had to alternatively arrange themselves in a way that his head would be at another prisoner’s feet. He said that there was no room to even stand when he needed to pass urine. An inmate at the HWC compared prison to a slaughterhouse. “Imagine how we control a herd of cows using a baton – that’s how they do it,” were his words about his experience. Inmates also described incidents of ragging that took place either at the hands of officers or other inmates. An inmate at the JRP explained how prisoners are given what is referred to as a welcome slap by an officer and three quarters of the inmates are hit three or four times using a guava stick. A female remandee at the JRP alleged that a female officer “slapped my face when I came here and hit my hand twice with a stick”. An inmate from KRP described ragging by other inmates of those sentenced for rape. According to this inmate, they have to sing a song or do twenty-five dips. If not, they would be beaten thrice.54 The most common response of a large number of female prisoners when asked about their experience on their first night in prison was that they were extremely sad, scared and lonely and spent the entire night crying. The majority of female prisoners stated they were grieving about leaving their children at home. A female inmate at PCP informed the Commission that she is still scared as she was when she first came to prison, because she was worried about leaving her three-year-old child. On the other hand, a female remandee in NRP said that it was the thought of her family and children that enabled her to endure her time prison: “That day I felt, I do not want this life. I felt like doing something when I was inside the police cell but because of my daughter and my son I tolerated it. I also told my husband that I felt like that.” 8. Recording of prisoner information by the Record Clerk 8.1. Creating the prisoner file The morning after the admission to prison, a prisoner is taken to the RC Branch, which is responsible for maintaining the personal records of prisoners. SMR 6 stipulates that there should be a system of prisoner file management in every prison, either in the form of an electronic database or in a registration book. SMR 6 also requires the security of the records 54 For a detailed discussion, please refer chapters The Continuum of Violence and Discipline and Punishment. 56