COIMBATORE: Due to the ‘convict ward’ at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) being closed for renovation, police personnel are forced to monitor convicts who are admitted there in the general ward, among the public. Moreover, with no chairs or beds for the cops to rest, they lamented that the punishment the convicts get is often smaller compared to what they go through monitoring them round-the-clock in the hospital.
“We admit the convicts in some corner of the general ward and sit around to guard them day and night,” said one policeman stationed at the CMCH for guarding a prisoner.
For each prisoner, four police personnel are deployed — two will keep vigil, while two others rest until they switch back. However, there are no additional beds or chairs for them. Due to this, the police personnel said they often face severe physical and mental trauma.
“If nurses help out, we get a chair for a while and sleep sitting on it. We struggle for every basic amenity, including toilets, drinking water. Keeping prisoners in a general ward is very unsafe, and being put on monitoring duty feels like a punishment for us,” said another police personnel.
In this backdrop, they have been demanding that that dedicated ‘convict ward’ be reopened at the earliest.
The Coimbatore Central Prison houses over 2,000 inmates, and those requiring medical care beyond first aid at the prison hospital are admitted to the CMCH, which has a separate convict ward located next to the paediatric ward. It has adequate space to accommodate at least five to eight prisoners and police personnel, with bed facilities, toilets and restrooms for the Armed Reserve personnel. Since it is in a separate building, police were able to provide full protection. But with renovation works under way, they are forced to shift admitted inmates to general wards. Security was stepped up after a criminal escaped from the CMCH on June 12. He feigned a restroom break, slipped through the women’s ward and escaped, sources said.
“We keep urging authorities to finish the work quickly, but to no avail,” said a senior police officer who supervises the security.