Five sub-jails in three districts of Telangana to be closed down due to insufficient prisoners

Hyderabad: Five sub-jails operating much below their sanctioned capacity are to be shut down in Telangana. Director General (Prisons and Correctional Services) VK Singh said the decision was a result of the reformation and rehabilitation measures undertaken by the prisons department bearing fruit. There are 35 sub-jails in Telangana, Singh said, adding that “by the end of this year, we intend to close three more sub-jails by reducing the number of prisoners.” The sub-jails at Armoor and Bodhan in Nizamabad district, Narasampet and Parkal in Warangal district and Madhira in Khammam district will be closed, he said. [caption id=“attachment_4336585” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] While the capacity in Armoor sub-jail is 10, the number of prisoners is only two. In the sub-jail at Bodhan, there are just two prisoners against an intake capacity of 17. Similar is the case at Narasampet where the number of prisoners confined is seven while the authorised capacity is 30 and at Parkal where there are two prisoners against a capacity of 30. In Madhira, the authorised capacity is 20 and the number of prisoners confined is 10. “We have taken up the task of reformation of the prisoners in jails. The prisoners are fully motivated to act as partners in the elimination of crime from society,” Singh said. “We are striving to reduce crime. The result has been visible over the last three years. We are closing down five sub-jails due to insufficient prisoners,” Singh said. According to the DG, the number of prisoners has also come down as compared to previous years with the total number of prisoners confined as on 27 January this year standing at 5,348 (male 4953 and female at 395) as against 6,012 (male 5567 and female 445) as on 31 December, 2014. The sanctioned accommodation in all the jails in the state is 6,848 persons, he said. “Now, we intend to reduce crime by 10 percent every year and the target is to make it 50 percent less over the next five years with the help of reformed prisoners, social activists and people. We also want to start a statewide awareness campaign for mutual resolution of disputes,” Singh said. The department has plans to give employment to all its ex-prisoners, single women and orphans to reduce crime, he said. “For this we intend to start 100 petrol bunks this year itself. We also plan to start 1,000 outlets (to sell products manufactured in prisons) in different villages across the state. We have a target of providing 3,000 jobs this year,” Singh said. The official informed that victims, both men and women, could be given jobs at the prisons department itself if they so wished. A proposal by the state’s Prisons department to rent out its jails to other states to lodge their convicts on payment basis is pending with the state government, Singh added.