Telangana to rent prison cells to other states

Telangana to rent prison cells to other states
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The Telangana State Prisons Department has hit upon a new idea to generate a revenue of Rs 25 crore for the state exchequer. It wants to rent out its space to prisoners from other states for a price of Rs 10,000 per month per prisoner.

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Prisons Department has hit upon a new idea to generate a revenue of Rs 25 crore for the state exchequer. It wants to rent out its space to prisoners from other states for a price of Rs 10,000 per month per prisoner.

"The space will be rented out to convicts of non-grievous and non-serious crime but not to all," Telangana State Prisons Director-General VK Singh told The Hans India.

"Norway, where the crime rate has plummeted in the recent times, has started this practice of letting out its prisons to neighboring countries which are facing shortage of space for their prisoners.

We want to adopt this method to make some money for the state's coffers,” he said adding that a detailed proposal has been drawn and would be submitted to the government for approval next week, he said. The space in prisons in the state is increasing with the crime rate taking a nosedive. Most of the criminals who are released from prisons after serving their sentence are not coming back which lends credence to the theory that the crime rate is slowly falling.

The outflow of criminals is more than the inflow which means that there might be more space in jails in future. Singh says that this was on account of the fact that most of the criminals who serve their sentences in Telangana jails learn professional work skills which help them lead a decent life after release. Some of them are trained in working at petrol pumps, construction works and so on. They earn a decent wages and lead a dignified life after release.

This has helped the prisons department to rent out its space for prisoners from other states. “At present we have space for 6,848 prisoners but number of prisoners is only 5,848 prisoners in the 50 prisons across Telangana state. It means we have space for 1,000 more prisoners which can be leased out to other states," Singh says.

"It would include the cost of accommodation, food, rehabilitation, medical treatment and training in skill development. We plan to start the scheme as soon as we get the official nod from the state government," he said, adding that if the scheme gets implemented as is being envisioned, the state would get about Rs 10 to Rs 25 crore annually.

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