barcodes

[Romel Panzer]

What does "reading the barcodes" means? I have come across it in a newspaper heading : " India's prisons are stuck in a time warp. Reading the barcodes." I hope the term "time warp" means "outdated/not progressing" etc. Please enlighten.

[Casiopea]

Our members can access the article here, Reading the Bar Codes.

The author is comparing the state of the jails then and now. 200 years later, human conditions in the jails haven't changed all that much--technology has:

Many things have changed at Tihar since the 1980s, .... Now, the biometrics of every prisoner are logged on a computer, and a fingerprint reader can call up every detail including his photograph, the crime of which he is accused, and the number of times he has been visited.

Does that help so far?

[Romel Panzer]

Even after reading the article "Reading the bar codes", I'm not very clear about the meaning of the phrase "reading the barcodes". As far as I could gather, it should mean (finding an answer/ solution or to figure out). Will yopu please throw some more light.

[Anglika]

It's a pun on the bars of a prison and the bars used in bar codes. Without reading the whole article, it implies that the ways of the prisons {both those of the prisoners and the warders] must be understood.

[MikeCollins]

I agree it is a play on words (pun).
Bar - as in prison (mentioned in text)

code - as in legal law (mentioned in text)

Barcode - a printed code on most packaged goods which can be read by computer and gives information about the product.

This is linked to the recording of information about prisoners which can be accessed by a fingerprint. (For fingerprint read barcode)