Prisons are no more isolated corners for the convicts but are places where the same services and facilities are provided as are available to the society outside the four walls of prisons. Consequently, the traditional setup of prisons is no longer in place. Rather it has yielded place to a new order of prison management.

The deprivations during the imprisonment period such as disconnect with normal social life, absence of material possessions, reduced personal autonomy and reduced personal security at times lead to disorientation of prisoners’ mind which can lead to the continuation of criminal behaviour after their release from prison.

While prisons, given their statutory mandate, cannot directly redress the pain of imprisonment, but they can surely provide an environment to mitigate the pain and offer inmates relief opportunities so that they adopt a prosocial way of life after they are let off. An offender, after he is released from the prison, invariably finds himself entering into a second social prison. The Prison Department has undertaken the new challenge of transforming the mind-set of inmates in a manner that when they go back to society there is no baggage to cow them down.

Supporting a successful transition to the community is central to the mission of the Punjab State Prison Department.