Jail Manual amended to deal owercrowding of jails in MP

Bhopal, May 8 (UNI) The Madhya Pradesh Government has effected an important amendment in the jail manual with the objective of redressing problems of overcrowding in state jails.

As per the amendment, prisoners undergoing five years' jail term would be detained in sub-jails and those undergoing ten or more years' imprisonment or life term would be detained in central jails.

A notification to this effect has been issued, an official release said here today.

All the superintendents of central jails, district jails and sub-jails have been instructed to ensure implementation of this order by June 1, 2008.

Earlier, prisoners undergoing up to one-year jail term were kept in sub-jails and those convicted for up to three years' imprisonment were detained at district jails. Due to this, central jails had to accommodate prisoners double or triple of their capacity.

On the other hand, sub-jails were keeping prisoners less than their capacity although the government had to spend lot of funds in running these sub-jails.

According to the amendment, prisoners convicted for minor crimes and hailing from far-fetched areas would not have to undergo imprisonment with habitual offenders at central jails as they would undergo imprisonment at a nearby sub-jail.

The amendment would decrease the burden on central jails which used to be overcrowded.

Meanwhile, captives undergoing short-term imprisonment would be shifted to sub-jails where they would get better opportunity of work which was not available to them at central jails. As per rules, honorarium is given to prisoners in lieu of their work in jail.

The government also made it clear that a prisoner undergoing life imprisonment at district of sub-jails be transferred back to the central jail.

Madhya Pradesh has 120 jails at present having a capacity to keep 20,448 prisoners. However, these jails have 32,019 more prisoners than their capacity.

As per perspective plan of the Centre, the Madhya Pradesh government has undertaken construction of additional barracks in many jails with a view to enhancing their capacity. As many as 359 new barracks have been constructed under this scheme, the release added.

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