Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to install CCTVs in all jails by the end of 2016-17. This was stated in a White Paper released by the home department during the recently concluded budget session of the assembly.
Statistics have it that there are 91 prisons in the state that are managed by the directorate of prisons. Of this 87 jails are fully operational.
The state government in its report has said as many as 50 jails will be installed with CCTVs . The jails included Bhubaneswar, Choudwar, Rourkela, Balangir, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Baripada and Koraput among other district jails.
“Apart from 50 jails, the state government had made budgetary provisions for installation of CCTVs in another 12 jails,” the government’s white paper said, adding, “Adhering to Supreme Court order the state government has a proposal to bring all jails in the state under CCTVs by 2016-17.”
Notably, the apex court has asked state governments install CCTVs to properly monitor of jails. This would allow authorities to check use of mobile phones, supply and use of contrabands and other restricted items inside prisons.
The system would store camera feeds up to 30 days in a central server which is housed in the jailor’s chamber. While small jails will have a single set of 16 cameras, those with larger number of inmates will have two or more camera sets.
As per the government data, there are 87 functional jails in the state while the present number of inmates stands at 15,965 of which 15323 are male and the remaining are female.
The per head per day expenditure of the prisoners incurred by the state government is `64.
The state government has stated that the government has made budgetary provisions for establishment of two model prisons, each with a capacity of 500 prisoners at Cuttak and Sundargarh.
