The state government has suspended the jailer after 64 prison inmates came to Corono test positive in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. Jail Minister Narotam Mishra has given this information. Jailor Vinay Jandelwal was posted in a sub-jail in Bareilly in Raisen district. The Home Minister said that jailer Vinay Jandelwal has been found responsible for spreading the corono virus in the jail. I have asked the Director General of Prisons to immediately suspend the jailer from service.
The minister said that 40 patients (prison inmates) have been shifted to Vidisha Medical College and the rest have been kept in Raisen Jail. Now we are making such a system that when any accused is brought to any jail across the state, then his Kovid-19 test should be done first. Until then, he must be quarantined in prison.
Raisen superintendent of police Monica Shukla said that three jail guards were admitted to the district hospital.
A prison official, on the condition of anonymity, said that a particularly crowded sub-jail had about 80 inmates in a capacity cell of 40, due to which the rules of social distancing could not be complied with and recently the sub – There was no corona test of prisoners held in jail.
Additional Superintendent of Police Amrit Meena said that four new prisoners were recently kept in the sub-jail and they spread the infection to 64 prisoners. He said that most of the corona positive prisoners are already diseased and have a cold and cough problem.
The Raisen prison incident has exposed the problem of overcrowding in state jails. Madhya Pradesh is one of the states with the highest number of prisoners in jails. According to SCRB 2019 data, the MP’s 131 jails had an additional weight of 155 per cent.
Director General of Police (Jail) Sanjay Chaudhary said that after the outbreak of Kovid-19, 9000 jail inmates have been released on parole to reduce the crowd from the jail. Even after sending parole prisoners, there are 36000 prisoners in jails with a capacity of 28500, that is 24 percent more than the capacity of jails.
He said that after the outbreak of Kovid 19, we made a barrack in every jail a quarantine barrack for every new prisoner. The prisoner who is in jail is quarantined for the first 14 days and only after he is completed is he allowed to accompany the other inmates of the prison. We have prohibited prison visits with relatives of prisoners. Not only this, a temperature measuring machine and pulse omecator have also been made available for the jail staff, but due to overcrowding, infection spread in the small prison (in Bareilly).
Apart from this, he said that to deal with the problem of overcrowding, the Minister of Prison Department has announced to extend the parole period by 60 days. Jail minister Narottam Mishra last week said that parole of under-trial inmates would be extended by 60 days as the number of inmates in the jails is very high. In the coming days, the state government will try to resolve the overcrowding issue.
