Beena Chintalapuri uses cognitive behavioral psychology to try to keep inmates from coming back. When Beena Chintalapuri, a cognitive psychologist, visited Chanchalguda Central Jail in Hyderabad in southern India in September 2016, the inmates were made to sit on the floor while she was provided with a chair and a table and served tea and biscuits. A few weeks later when authorities called her back, Chintalapuri refused to go to the prison until her conditions were met: All inmates in her class had to be provided with chairs, tables, tea and biscuits. And a pen and paper too. She insisted everyone be treated equally. Chintalapuri, 63, was invited by the prison warden to conduct behavioral training workshops with inmates, a novel concept, but in a country with 400,000 prisoners — the fifth largest population in the world — it was worth a shot. Her audience of habitual offenders included gangsters, rapists, murderers and thieves. But her simple demand for tea went a long way. “She made us all feel like human beings, she gave us respect,” says Arshad Ali, 28, one of those inmates. |