On any given day, Bengaluru Central Prison has approximately 4,400 inmates, but there is no database on their state of health. At the time of arrest, an accused has to undergo a medical examination before he or she is handed over to judicial custody. However, the medical certificate is a general bill of health and the prison authority files the paperwork as a formality.
Realising this gap in information, the Prisons Department on Friday launched what they call a comprehensive testing facility within the prison premises. Henceforth, every accused — convict and undertrial — will undergo physical and mental tests. The medical report will be digitised, and follow-up treatments will be updated accordingly, said officials.
The existing medical staff — three medical officers and three paramedics — will be responsible for the database.
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Officials hope that this system will ensure that inmates get timely help and follow-up treatment. “As medical certificates provided at the time of their arrest were not comprehensive, doctors would discover that an inmate was chronically ill only during health camps. Often, we found out the disease too late,” said a prison official.
People who are mentally ill also do not get adequate treatment. “Though the Prisons Department is a correctional institution, because of lack of facilities, it’s difficult to treat mentally ill inmates who find it hard to follow the rules that govern prison life. As a result, they suffer a lot, and are ill-treated by prison staff who use indiscipline as an excuse,” the official added.
According to D. Roopa, Deputy Inspector-General of Prisons, the comprehensive facility is the first step of the department to streamline the system.
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