Building for Madurai women’s prison in final stage

The building for the women’s prison on the Central Prisons campus is getting ready and very soon the State government will inaugurate it.

Superintendent of the Central Prisons R. Arivudainambee said that the new facility would accommodate 200 inmates.

At present, women, both convicts and remand prisoners, were being taken to Nilakottai or Tiruchi prisons. It gave huge responsibility on the part of the police in taking women for long journey both for remanding as well as for producing them before courts for hearings.

Besides, the kith and kin of the prisoners were made to spend time, energy and money on travelling to far-off places to meet them in the prisons. A tailoring unit would also come up on the women’s jail campus.

Mr. Arivudainambee said that the Central Prisons had recently introduced a new scheme to encourage prisoners to behave well in the jail. Well-behaved prisoners would earn special interviews with all their family members on the last Sundays of the month.

He listed out that prisoners were mandated to take up yoga and walking early in the morning. Besides, they should volunteer (without anyone having to instruct them) to go to the units they are assigned and work properly. They should pursue higher education according to their educational qualification and regularly use the jail library.

“Besides, they should not come to adverse notice like illegally using cell phones or using narcotics substances,” the Superintendent said.

Stating that 88 convicts fulfilled these conditions, Mr. Arivudainambee said that around 15 of them had the opportunity to have a special interview with their family members.