Ties of blood Prisons are mirrors of the underworld. This is a grotesque irony, since prisons are meant to be corrective and, at least ideally, humane institutions. The terrible riot in Madras Central Jail has well and truly blown the lid off any pretensions to order and discipline the prison administration might have professed. Prison riots are not unheard of events. The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr M. Karunanidhi himself, mentioned two riots which took place in 1995, one in the same jail. This last only adds a further edge to the recent violence. The few facts that are emerging indicate that the prisoners turned aggressive after hearing that ?Boxer? Vadivelu had died in the prison hospital. Whether or not this was the reason for their anger is not the question. The point is that they could manage to get hold of not only sticks and stones, but of all the necessaries with which to tie up the deputy warden and burn him to death. The intensity of the violence can be gauged somewhat from the scale of the police action which followed, the firing that left many dead and numerous injured. This is not the time for the state government to pussyfoot about in the matter of an inquiry, a quick follow up and a clear report. Whether or not Vadivelu was a thug patronized by members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is immaterial. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government should focus on the serious ills of the prison administration that made this bloody riot possible. There is no way to avoid acknowledging the presence of a possible nexus between prison officials and convicts. It is not so long ago that the Supreme Court sentenced to death a convict and his guard for raping and killing a jail official?s minor daughter elsewhere. Corruption and cowardice in prison administration can be fatal, as every major prison riot has proved. The police aggression in response to prison riots has also to be scrutinized. Violence unleashed by criminals within a state institution cannot mean unrestrained violence by the police. That the situation should be allowed to get to this point shows there is something terribly wrong. Cosmetic changes like the glittering new unit being prepared for the women inmates of Tihar prison mean nothing when the realities of prison management occasionally burst into light. If the Tamil Nadu government is at all serious about preventing similar riots, it should go all out to find and reveal the truth, beginning with the facts about Vadivelu?s death. It can try setting an example by exposing those accountable and penalizing them. No other deterrent will work.