Inmates here add to State coffers

Inmates here add to State coffers
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Highlights

Cherlapally Jail is the largest prison in Telangana and confines more than 2,000 prisoners at any given point of time. 

Cherlapally: Cherlapally Jail is the largest prison in Telangana and confines more than 2,000 prisoners at any given point of time.

The Open Prison Department of Cherlapally Jail contributes about Rs 6 crore to the State’s economy through its manpower-oriented industries, which include steel, Indian oil corporation petrol pump, two wheeler and four wheeler water servicing, and weighbridge units, which were established within the premises of the jail.

Highlights:

  • Cherlapally Open Prison contributes Rs 6 crore to State’s economy
  • Inmates work in different industries like steel, petrol pump, farming et al

A team of experts come and train the prisoners in the respective fields, to equip the inmates with the necessary skills to operate in these units.

Arjun Rao, Superintendent of Cherlapally Open Prison said, “We have about 90 inmates in our Open Prison, out of which 13 of them work at the petrol pump, three at the water servicing centre, 15 to 20 at the steel industry and two at the weighbridge and the rest are in dairy and organic farming.

By allowing the inmates to earn money this way, we are instilling a sense of responsibility in them and that in turn helps them to bring a change in their personality. This is one of the reason why, in the last five years we have not admitted any repeat offenders in our prison.”

“Every prisoner, who works these units get Rs 70 per day except for the petrol pump workers, who are paid Rs 100 to Rs 110 per day,” he added.When asked about the schedule of the prisoners, Arjun Rao, informed, “The inmates start their day 5.30 am and practice yoga and the work ends around 8 pm.

Later, there are study hours for weak students, who are pursuing various courses under Vidya Danam Yojna, while it is TV time for other prisoners. We also conduct guest lecture sessions on moral conduct and also show them short films, which has life skills messages.”

About the diet regimen of inmates Arjun Rao, said, “We have two forms of diet – labour and the non-labour diet. The labour diet is served to the convicted prisoners and the non-labour is catered to the on-trial inmates. Under labour diet we provide 700 gms of rice with rasam and a vegetable curry, whereas in the non-labour diet we provide 600 gms of rice with rasam and a vegetable curry. In the morning we serve, upma, pulihora, tomato rice and pongal to the prisoners.”

The convicts in Open Prison are allowed to go and meet their family members under two schemes, the Parole scheme and the Furlough scheme. “Parole scheme is ‘temporary suspension of sentence’, a prisoner gets leave upto 30 days, and can avail this two times in a year. However, the appeal to avail this kind of leave has to be cleared by the government. Under Furlough scheme, a prisoner can avail off upto two weeks and it is cleared by Director General of Prison,” Arjun Rao informed.

By Neelam Shaw

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