Scores of newly built prisons are lying vacant

NK SINGH

You’ve got to give credit where it’s due. When jails in Madhya Pradesh were getting too overcrowded, the state Government decided sensibly to build more jails to accommodate the prisoners. The next logical step would have been to shift some prisoners to the new jails. 

But wait a minute-you’re asking for too much now. You can’t expect governments to sensibly all the time.

So that’s where it stands. As many as 67 new prisons, constructed between 1983 and 1988 at a cost of Rs 40 crore, still remain unoccupied. Meanwhile, the state’s jails are bursting at the seams-against their capacity of 18,000 prisoners, they now accommodate 24,500 inmates. 

In some jails, like the one at Jagadalpur in Bastar district, the number of prisoners is almost three times its capacity. And what’s the reason for the overcrowding? Shortage of prisons, according to jail officials.

The real reason is that the Government has neither the funds to furnish the new prison buildings nor adequate staff to guard them. It was only early this year, after Narendra Prasad took over as IG, prisons, that he was able to persuade the Government to hire Home Guard jawans and train them as prison guards to open the new jails. As a result, 31 of the 98 prisons which were completed have started functioning.

Construction of the new jails started a decade ago under a Central Government scheme which provided funds to various states for locating prisons at tehsil headquarters, which are also the seat of lower courts. 

Of the 226 jails sanctioned to be built all over the country, as many as 126 were to come up in Madhya Pradesh at a cost of about Rs 60 crore. Eager to partake of the Centre’s largesse, Madhya Pradesh, along with many other states grabbed the grant. 

The realisation that it lacked the funds to operate the jails came later. Nor did the state Government have the foresight to hire and train extra staff to run the newly constructed jails.

Even where there was adequate staff-as in the seven prisons built to replace the old ones- the jail buildings remained vacant as the Government did not even have enough money to relocate the staff. 

One of these, in Panna, is still unoccupied. Says a Jail Department spokesman: “We sent several proposals to the Government, but it did not sanction hiring of new staff.”

Department officials also complain that many of the new jails are situated far away from towns. With neither adequate personnel nor vehicles at their disposal, the police will find it difficult to ferry under trials, who account for nearly half of the inmates, between prisons and courts. 

Says a spokesman: “If we fail to produce an undertrial in court due to problems if logistics, we will have to face the wrath of the judiciary.”

The jail Department has now hit upon what it thinks is the ideal solutions-it is simply avoiding taking charge of many of the new building from the Public Works Department (PWD). For its part, having finished its work, the PWD has locked up the jails. 

At some places, the local administration makes use of the buildings to house, ironically, police personnel in the buildings meant to house criminals.

The Madhya Pradesh Government would do well to find means of making the new jails operational. 

And if it cannot, a glance around the buildings will reveal a number of schools functioning from cowsheds, godowns, or even from makeshift tents. Seven thousands of the state‘s 83,000 schools function without a proper building. 

In this context, allowing completed building to lie vacant is sheer criminal waste.

India Today 31 October 1993

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