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Jails filled to capacity Law & order

Jail authorities find the going tough with overcrowding of prisoners and shortage of staff at prisons in Malabar, writes Biju Govind.

The Department of Prisons is faced with the daunting task of dealing with the problem of overcrowding of inmates in jails in north Kerala. The number of undertrial prisoners and convicts has exceeded the allotted capacity in almost all the jails.

Senior officials say the number of inmates has risen to an all-time high, particularly at the sub-jails at Thalassery, Kozhikode, Vythiri, Kasaragod, Ottappalam and Manjeri. Jail authorities are finding it tough to manage the inmates. The Manjeri sub-jail has six warders for managing approximately 100 prisoners.

North Kerala has 19 jails in all. These are the Central Prison in Kannur, an open prison at Cheemeni, a district jail in Kozhikode, special sub-jails at Thalassery and Palakkad and sub-jails at Kasaragod; Kanhangad; Hosdurg; Kannur; Vythiri; Vadakara; Koyilandi; Tirur; Ponnani; Manjeri; Perinthalmanna; Ottapalam; Alathur and Chitoor. The Manathawadi sub-jail has become defunct.

The sub-jails are meant for undertrials and those sentenced for a period of one month; special sub-jails for undertrials and convicts for a period of three months; district jails, for convicts sentenced up to six months imprisonment; and the Central Prison, for convicts sentenced for periods above six months up to life imprisonment. Sometimes undertrials are also kept at district jails. Select prisoners from the Central Prison are accommodated at the open jail at Cheemeni.

Overcrowding can be solved to a certain extent with the opening of three more jails in Kozhikode, Kannur and Mananthawadi. New Buildings are coming up on the premises of these existing jails, they say.

However, the recent controversy over the transfer of inmates from the Kannur Central Prison to the Thrivananthapuram Central Prison has resulted in stoppage of shifting prisoners from one jail to another for convenience of jail authorities. Only the Head of the Prisons is now empowered to issue orders in this regard.

Interestingly, the jails have also become highly politicised. Only prisoners and undertrials belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are housed at the Kannur Central Prison while Bharatiya Janata Party workers convicted in political clashes are lodged at the Thalassery sub-jail and the Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison. A section of undertrials and convicts enjoys privileges at some sub-jails is another problem confronting the jail authorities.

The department is also faced with shortage of staff. Nearly 40 posts of warders out of 105 remain vacant at the Kannur Central Prison. The rate of attrition of employees attached to the Department of Prisons is also high. Most of them opt for other government jobs or shift careers to private companies. Recruitment through employment exchanges has yielded no positive results. A proposal to post ex-servicemen on daily wages at a sum of Rs. 140 is now being mooted to meet the shortage of staff.

Authorities say jail superintendents usually get reprimanded for failure to summon undertrials before the courts. This is attributed to the shortage of police personnel to escort the undertrials to courts. Introducing video conferencing facility linking courts and jails and subsequent amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code can solve the problem, they say.

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