HYDERABAD: Though the State Prisons Department has initiated a slew of measures for the welfare of inmates, crowding is still a cause for concern in Telangana jails. The delay in segregation of women convicts and undertrials, with the shortage of staffers, is also proving to be a headache for the department.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, the prisons in Telangana are overcrowded by upto 69 per cent, while the department is reeling under a 33 per cent staff shortage. "This suggests lack of adequate workforce for prison administration and management," the report observed.
The CAG report pointed out the security lapses, prisoners' requirements, health and medicalcare, reforms and rehabilitation measures, special remission for release of prisoners, and the education system in the jails in Telangana.
It stated that the State had constituted a committee in July 2016, for preparing a new Prison Manual. Though the draft manual was submitted to the government in September, 2016, it has not yet approved the manual which had provisions for inclusive participation and prisoners' welfare, inlcuding prisoners' panchayat and board of visitors.
Training for skill development and employment opportunities to facilitate rehabilitation are not available to prisoners and the wages paid to them are not rationalised, the report found.
As per the Model Prison Manual (MPM), the excess number of prisoners have to be transferred to other institutions. However, the audit did not find any plans by the authorities to this regard. In response, the DG (Prisons) stated that a proposal was sent to the government for upgradation of two district jails in Nizamabad and Sangareddy, as central prisons so that an average of 1,000 prisoners could be admitted there. Government stated that the proposal was under examination.
With respect to women prisoners, in the Mahbubnagar District Jail and Special Prison for Women, women convicts and undertrial prisoners are being confined in the same barrack. When non-compliance to MPM was pointed out, the prison authorities in Mahbubnagar said that this was happening due to shortage of a single barrack with 20 prisoners’ capacity.