KASARAGOD: The State Government will take steps to ensure that human rights of prisoners are protected and their needs considered in the most sympathetic way, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said here on Thursday.

He was addressing a public meeting at the inauguration of the Cheemeni open jail.

Mr. Achuthanandan began his address by paying homage to martyrs of the Kayoor-Cheemeni anti-feudal revolution and Salem jail rebellion during the freedom struggle.

He said the Government was hopeful of keeping its promise of reducing the term of prisoners by between 15 days and two years in connection with the 50th anniversary of the reorganisation of the State. The issue was before the Governor and legal tangles had come in the way. "We are hopeful of untying the legal knots soon," he said.

Mr. Achuthanandan said the Government was considering an increase in the wages of inmates and a psychological approach to bring about a transformation in their minds.

Jails housed different types of persons, including convicts, under-trial prisoners and even innocents who had landed in jails unable to get skilled advocates to represent them in courts. Treating all of them as hardcore criminals was an injustice. Open jails would provide the much-needed atmosphere to reform prisoners and lead them to the right path, the Chief Minister said.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who presided over the function, said the State Government would increase facilities in jails and open more of them to find a solution to shortage of space in prisons. The Government would amend the jails Act and implement the recommendations of A.P Udayabhanu Commission, which looked into jail reforms.

Mr. Balakrishnan said the Government had appointed 50 employees at the Cheemeni open jail and sanctioned the appointment of 26 employees each to the newly sanctioned Hosdurg and Chittoor sub-jails. A central jail would be started at Pathanamthitta.

Mr. Balakrishnan said the Government would convert the 123-hectare Cheemeni open jail into a model agricultural farm with the cooperation of the inmates and guidance of the agricultural university. A family whose house came to be located in the land acquired for the jail would be rehabilitated.

Director-General of Police (Prisons) M.G.A. Raman welcomed the gathering. K.V. Kunhiraman, C.H. Kunjambu and Pallipram Balan, MLAs, spoke.

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