Programmes to equip prisoners with skills will be expanded to more prisons in the State, Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services R.Sreelekha has said.
She was speaking after distributing certificates to the inmates of the Special Sub-jail who successfully completed a vocational training course in electrical wiring. She also inaugurated the plumbing course for the next batch which began on Tuesday.
“Prisons are not centres of torture, but places where the minds of the inmates are purified. They get time to contemplate and reflect on their past, get opportunities to meet new people, spend time with books and now get equipped with a skill. With the skills gained here, they can go out of here and get jobs, with these certificates,” she said.
DIG of Prisons and Correctional Services (South Zone) B.Pradeep presided over the function. He said that the certificates would not indicate that it was obtained while in prison, thus making it easier for the inmates to get jobs, once they are out of prison.
The course was organised jointly with the Government Central Polytechnic College Vattiyoorkavu.
College Principal Bindu Vasudevan said that the skills like wiring and plumbing are always in demand in the booming construction sector as well as for regular maintenance work in households. Thus it will provide a regular income once they are out of jail. Certificates were distributed to 15 inmates on Tuesday.
