Keonjhar: The Keonjhar Jail is bursting at the seams due to overpopulation, with both inmates and jail staff reportedly facing a tough time having to manage on limited resources.
Inmates say they are bearing the brunt as they are being deprived of basic facilities as a result of the overcrowding.
According to reports, the jail has a capacity to lodge 407 inmates, but 557 inmates have been accommodated in it. Of them, several inmates are serving life imprisonment while many are undertrials.
The inmates say the space crunch is making their time in prison all that more difficult.
Steps were taken for opening of a newly-constructed ward with a capacity to accommodate 200 persons, but it has remained ineffective as proper drainage and other ancillary facilities have not been put in place as yet, sources added.
The jail was set up in 1916 on a sprawling area of five acres of land. Inmates were being engaged in various labour-intensive activities like vegetable and crop raising, apart from other occupational activities.
This had helped the jail generate some income to be self-sufficient to some extent, sources said.
However, such activities were discontinued over the years.
It is alleged that security in and around the jail has been lax instead of being strengthened even though many dreaded criminals and Maoists were lodged here.
A number of shops and business concerns have mushroomed around the boundary wall of the jail. There is also a bus stop nearby, and the area is generally crowded. This has led to security concerns, say jail officials.
The jail authorities have allegedly not taken steps to remove shops along the boundary wall, even though there were instances of inmates having escaped from the jail several times in the past.
The jail has no vehicle or van of its own to shift inmates in cases of emergency while posts of five warders are lying vacant.
As for the vacancies, jailer Ajit Routray said, “Some policemen were engaged inside the jail instead of warders for the last few months.”
Routray added that the jail has accommodated far more inmates than its capacity. “If the newly-built ward is made operational, overcrowding will be resolved to some extent,” Routray said. PNN
