Alipore Jail Press

Alipore Jail Press is situated inside the walls of the Alipore Correctional Home, Alipore. It is run by the Press and Forms Department, Government of West Bengal and employs the convicts of the Alipore Correctional Home and paid-hands for skilled labour that cannot be provided by the inmates. The press, in its present state, prints all government forms to its capacity and other miscellaneous sanctioned by the government. The press does not operate for any private or profit-making enterprise.

As per the Annual Report on the Administration of the Bengal Presidency in 1865 the Press employed 269 prisoners and an annual earning of Rs. 2,20, 643.

The press did not originate in its current residence. In fact, the government under the British had no plans to construct a press at all had it not been for the efforts of Dr. Mouat, the newly appointed Inspector-General of Jails. Till 1857 the chief view of the administration concerning the labour in jails was penal and utilitarian – the convicts were deemed to be the worst characters and therefore only rigorous work could be suitable for them and as a mode of payment for their sustenance in the jails. However, Dr. Mouat, after a Jail Exhibition in 1857 of the Bareilly Jail, became determined to introduce a print industry to print his own circulars and additionally make the jails a profit-making machine for the State in the troubled times after the Mutiny.

Within a year, the press was formed in order to decrease the expense and delay incurred in printing and lithographing circulars, forms, etc., for the Jail Department. The small experimental organization proved to be so successful and efficient that soon Dr. Mouat proposed to extend it with the object of establishing a complete printing and lithographic establishment at Alipore to execute by their means all the Government work at present performed elsewhere at considerable cost to the State. This proposal was immediately met with objection from men who thought the occupation too light for the convicts. After along argument it was decided that neither Dr. Mouat nor those opposing him were entirely wrong and thus the government decided to ratify Dr. Mouat's proposal with a limitation that only the typographic department be extended so as to execute all the form work that is to be transferred from the Government Gazette Press and to add to it first rate lithographic presses and all other necessary machines. On 1 July 1858, the printing of all Bengal forms was, for the first time, undertaken by the Jail Department. The Press began to print with varying degrees of considerable profit.

In 1870, a memorable year in the history of Bengal Jails, Dr. Mouat retired after 15 years of office. His retirement was seized upon by those who opposed him to reverse his policy and that which Dr. Mouat had so strived to eradicate soon took precedence over printing. The reformatory and educational endeavours were replaced with the penal effects of the tread-mill, the crank and the lash. The other notable change was the transfer of the Forms-store from the Stationery office to Alipore Jail at the recommendation of the committee of 1869. However, with the decline of the Press, the grounds on which the transfer was made proved to be fallacious and in 1876 it was re-transferred to its original location. The setback of the press affected the government acutely and it soon sought to transfer the whole press to the Presidency Jail, on the Maidan, the insignificant miscellaneous manufactures were discontinued in favour of a concentration of almost all the printing of the Bengal Government. It thus became possible to transfer the greater part of the printing apparatus from the Secretariat Press and give employment to between 600-700 prisoners in all branches of printing and book-binding.

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