Prevention In Custody

Lalzathang, a 25-year-old addict who has been on heroin since 1989, was sent here by his impoverished family in November in a last-ditch bid. Over the years, Lalzathang has undergone rehabilitation four times (including once in Calcutta) but, like most addicts in Churachandpur, relapsed after each attempt. During his most recent attempt, late last year, he was caught fixing while still under detoxification, leaving his family no choice but to send him to jail. Says he: "I want to quit (the habit) but just don't have the courage to do it. Ideserve to be here, for this is the only place I can't get a fix even if I want to."

 Often the jail has over a hundred such addicts, none of whom are booked under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Instead, they are placed in preventive custody under Section 110 of the CrPC—a common way to deal with addicts across Manipur—to ward off prosecution and consequent stringent punishment. Says SP, L.M. Khaute: "Addicts' families ask us to put them in prison as a last resort to forcibly keep them off drugs but tell us not to punish them under the law. The only way we can help them is by taking the addicts into preventive custody whereby there is no (criminal) record or punishment."

However, unlike the unique Sajiwa Jail in Imphal, which has a special wing for detention and rehabilitation of addicts, its poor cousin in Churachandpur is just another prison where detoxification and other facilities are neither available nor permitted. Reason: deto-xification entails administering drug substitutes to cope with withdrawal symptoms and such substances are proscribed in jail, lest they be misused. However, this is the least of the worries of Assistant Jailer S. Thouthang who bitterly complains about the already dilapidated condition of the four-year-old building and a crippling shortage of blankets, mosquito nets and other amenities.

As there is no resident doctor or paramedic, SHALOM volunteers visit the jail twice a week and attend to emergencies as well. However, once released after a painful period of drug abstinence, spanning a few months, most inmates don't take long to return to their old ways. Graffiti on the prison walls sums up their credo: "Addicts live for next fix."