E Arun & Tarun Kartick
Port Blair, Jul 14: Recent escape of three Burmese Poachers from Prothrapur Jail has now raised many questions over the functioning of the District Jail. The main question is whether the Jail staffs are capable of maintaining the security of the Jail? Are we expecting more such escapes in Bollywood style? Is a major Jail Break on the cards?
When Andaman Sheekha investigated into this matter it has been found that the actual capacity of the District Jail is 269 but as per records the jail presently has nearly 1126 prisoners.
With this figures, one can clearly understand that the Jail is unbelievably overcrowded and it must be difficult for the Jail Authorities to control and look after so large number of prisoners, which is nearly 300 percent more than actual capacity. At present there is a shortage of more than 100 warders and respective Head Warder and Chief Head Warder in the Jail.
It is really surprising that every year more and more prisoners are sent to the Jail but there has not been any increase in the number of staffs working in the jail since nearly last one decade, which has led to incidents. where the prisoners manage to flee out of the jail.
Further the staffs of the jail also might be felling insecure to work among so many convicts and under-trials, who can easily overpower the jail guards anytime and kill them for an easy escape.
In this regard Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Theeva Neethi Dhas , IAS, Secretary, Law to know the possible reasons behind such delay in appointing staffs for the District Jail.
Mr. Theeva Neethi Dhas informed Andaman Sheekha that presently the District Jail, Prothrapur has near about 1200 prisoners in which most are foreigners (Poachers) and only 150-200 prisoners are from these Islands.
To minimize the overcrowding situation, as per the notification dated 17-09-2012 issued by the Assistant Secretary (Home), the Jail department has taken over the Poachers’ Camp building situated at Prothrapur and in initial stage 102 inmates have been transferred to District Prison (Poachers’ Camp).
He also informed that Home Guard, IRBN and CRPF Jawans have also been posted in the jail premise to look after the security.
“We are trying to fill up the existing vacancies in the jail. Some posts are vacant and it is under process. Guidelines for maintaining the prisoners, staff ratio are issued by the central government. May be by the end of this year we will be able to start the recruitment process,” Mr. Dhas added.
Disproportionate ratio of convicts and Jail staffs is a dangerous recipe for future disaster. A few months back a few Juveniles had escaped from Juvenile home after killing two Staffs of Juvenile Home. This was possible because the inmates of Juvenile Home managed to overpower the Jail Staffs. Hope the Administration is not waiting for another such incident at District Jail. Are we wise enough to learn from past mistakes??
