The Mangaluru District prison now has around 440 inmates, which is more than double its capacity. The prison staff of around 18 members, including the prison superintendent, has been found to be far inadequate to manage these inmates.
The new prison building built next to the old structure has been designed to accommodate around 200 inmates. The average number of inmates in the prison was around 350 for the last few months.
But since the group clash in Ulaibettu on December 5 and the attacks and disturbance that followed, the number of inmates in the prison has risen sharply. Around 80 persons were arrested by the city police in connection with these incidents. Police Commissioner R. Hithendra said quick action by the police has reduced the possible backlash over such incidents.
This action has increased the load of the prison staff. On December 16, the number of inmates had touched 453. As on December 25, there are 440 inmates — 423 male, 14 female and three children.
The number of currently-functioning warders – the ground staff managing the prison – in the prison are 12. This is against the sanctioned strength of 19 posts. There are six head warders, a chief warder, a jailor and a superintendent. Proposal to sanction additional staff required to manage the inmates and provide them with vocational training was yet to be approved by the State government.
The prison authorities have devised their own means to control the inmates, a majority of them aged between 20 and 30. For the last few months, inmates are being housed in two separate set of cells based on the community they belong to in order to prevent clashes between the groups. Closed-circuit cameras are installed in cells to monitor their movements. The prison staff are using the video conferencing facility to produce inmates from the prison before the magistrates and city sessions judges.
