BHUBANESWAR: The Directorate of Prisons has planned to set up four new jails in Odisha to handle overcrowding of inmates.
As part of the expansion plan, it will establish three jails to accommodate 500 inmates each at Bhoipali in Sambalpur, Jajpur and Bhadrak. Currently, the jails in Jajpur and Bhadrak have a capacity to house 133 and 201 inmates respectively.
The Supreme Court had earlier in the year directed states and union territories to prepare a roadmap on the number of jails needed to cater to prison population for the next 50 years.
Prisons directorate sources said the special jail at Jharpada will be shifted to Jamujhari and its capacity increased from 991 to 2,500.
“Though the overall accommodation capacity in the state is 23,526, the current population stands at 17,185 as on October 31. However, two to three jails including the special jail in Bhubaneswar are facing overcrowding problems,” DG, Prisons Arun Kumar Ray told TNIE.
Besides setting up the new facilities, the sub-jails in Malkangiri and Bargarh will be upgraded to district jails. Additional wards with a total capacity of 1,125 are also being constructed in 13 jails. Once the projects conclude by 2026-2027, the prison capacity will be in excess in the state, said Ray. Along with increasing the housing capacity of the jails, Prisons directorate is also making efforts to ensure mental and physical health well-being of the inmates.
As of now, 90 pharmacists have been deputed to different jails to look after the health of the inmates. Around 21 male nursing orderlies and 20 female nursing orderlies have also been engaged on outsourcing basis to look after the ailing inmates.
In state’s major jails, medical officers of sub-divisional and district headquarters hospitals are visiting there every week to conduct specialised health check-up of the inmates.
Prisons wing has also provided ambulances to all major jails to handle emergencies and shift ill inmates to hospitals. Earlier, there were 15 ambulances and during the current financial year, the state government approved 30 more ambulances on outsourcing basis to meet any health emergency of prisoners.