Director General of Police (Prisons) H.N. Satyanarayana Rao on Wednesday said the process of setting up a state-of-the-art and all-inclusive Central Prison at Mudipu in Banwal Taluk near Mangaluru had commenced.
Once completed, it would be the 10th Central Prison in Karnataka, after the one in Shivamogga, which is set for inauguration. The Mangaluru Central Prison, to come up on a sprawling 67.89 acre campus in Mudipu, is estimated to cost about ₹200 crore. The government has already released ₹2 crore for the work and earmarked ₹7.5 crore for this financial year, Mr. Rao said.
He was interacting with presspersons after dedicating a new visitors’ gallery and laying the foundation stone for a welcome arch at the district jail in the city. Mr. Rao said a few works remain to be done on the new facility, including insertion of glass panes between the cubicles separating inmates and the visitors and installation of intercom facility. The DGP said the All India Prisons Manual mandates that such glass panes be bullet proof, which have already been installed at Shivamogga prison. Mangaluru district jail, though not a Central Prison yet, is significant for his department, he said.
Explaining the features of the new Central Prison at Mudipu, Mr. Rao said it would be an all-inclusive structure to hold about 1,0000 inmates, under-trials and convicts as well. He said the master plan has provisions for automatic doors with spikes at the entrance. These features would be in place if the public works department that would execute the project can procure the same. If PWD cannot get the same, the Prisons Department would have to go for semi-automatic gages with crash barriers.
The prison complex would have a separate staff quarters block to house 270 jail staff, a library, hospital and workshops. It would also have a helipad, as per the suggestion made by the Home Minister. The topography and terrain of the campus was kept in mind while finalising the plan. The present district jail houses 410 inmates, which is overcrowded.
The DGP said the present problem of shortage of escort staff would cease to exist with the department going in for video-conferencing. It has ordered 32 video-conferencing units to 22 courts and 10 jails in the State at ₹1.89 crore. Three such units have been given to Mangaluru, he added.
No preferential treatment to inmates
Mr. Rao said that the department has not been providing preferential treatment to prison inmates, under-trials or convicts.
He said his department strictly goes by the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules) and makes no exception to anyone, including high-profile politicians.
The practice of following prisoner categorisation was stopped by the department decades ago, he said, referring to reports of preferential treatment given to AIADMK General Secretary V.K. Sasikala. The aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha is serving sentence at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru after her conviction in the disproportionate assets case. Sasikala is Prisoner No. 9234 at the Central Prison and is being treated as such by jail authorities, he said.
Disputing reports that Sasikala was given AC, water heating and other facilities, Mr. Rao said the court had left it to the discretion of the prison authorities when her counsel sought certain facilities. The chief superintendent of the prison is empowered to provide minimal additional requirement in view of a prisoner’s health condition.
Mobile jammers
On mobile jammers, which are intended to prevent jail inmates from using cell phones from within the premises, he said it could be a thing of the past with the prisons department planning to go for ‘FG1’ portable security poles.
Mr. Rao said he was aware of problems being caused by the jammers to residents of surrounding areas. Mangaluru District Jail, located in the heart of the city, has been a challenge to handle, he said
While jammers block cellular signals in a particular location, FG1 poles act in a different way. They can detect even the smallest amount of metal, including the one present in mobile SIM cards, thereby preventing smuggling of such articles in to the jails. FG1 works by detecting changes in the ambient magnetic field caused by ferromagnetic objects passing by.
The department has already installed five such poles in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru and is in the process of buying 10 more for jails in the State, including Mangaluru, the DGP said.
