Visit norms flouted at prisons

Ranchi: Even though the jail authorities had issued detailed standard operating procedures (SoPs) last week, putting a complete stop to visitations at jails, data maintained by the National Prisons Information Portal (NPIP) said 160 persons visited the prisons in the state on Monday to meet those incarcerated.

The 29 jails in the state -- seven central, 16 divisional, five sub-jails and an open jail in Hazaribag -- have 20,446 inmates and, on Monday, six new prisoners entered the jails and 44 were released, the real-time data said, adding that 31 persons visited in Birsa Munda central jail at Ranchi, 23 were at Jaiprakash Narayan central jail in Hazaribag, 25 at Dhanbad district jail, 20 at Gaghidih central jail and 16 at Central Jail in Dumka.

Jail authorities, however, said that no visitors is being allowed at prisons.

“It may be the figure of those coming to the jails and not the visitors coming to meet the prisoners,” inspector general (prisons) Birendra Bhushan said, adding that he will ask the jail authorities to send in a fresh report to ensure that the restrictions are followed in letter and spirit.

Meanwhile, with 141 prisoners and 34 security personnel posted in Jharkhand’s 29 jails testing positive for the novel coronavirus, the jail administration is planning to shift some lodge in overcrowded jails to those that have some available space to ensure proper sanitization and social distancing can be maintained behind bars.

While Birsa Munda Central Jail with 3,674 inmates is considered adequately populated, the divisional jail in Sakchi with 139 inmates is sparse. However, the jail in Chaibasa with 809 inmates and the Khunti sub-jail with 701 inmates have prisoners double their capacity.

Bhushan admitted that certain jails are at 200% occupancy while some at 60 to 70% capacity. “A few prisoners were released by the courts to reduce overcrowding, but we have to rationalize the distribution of inmates. We are working out the modalities of shifting prisoners from crowded ones to those that have vacancy.

Keeping the prisons at 120% occupancy is a better idea than having more than 200% in one,” he said.

President Network of Advocates for Rights and Action (NARA) Gopi Kant Ghosh, who has been working for human rights of jail inmates, said most jails in Jharkhand are overcrowded and if the virus enters a jail, it will be difficult to stop the infection from spreading fast.

“Social distancing is impossible in these and every effort has to be made to ensure that the virus does not start infecting the prisoners,” he said.

Nationally, Jharkhand is not on the list of seven states that have the highest number of prisoner – Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 1,06,450 inmates, while the national figure stands at 4,72,681.