Staff crisis in Odisha jail
Bhubaneswar, 09/05: The prisons in the state have a capacity of 19,291 prisoners. But there are more than 23 thousand. Everywhere is overloaded. Meanwhile, the number of employees is decreasing. There should be 3185 staff for 19,291 prisoners. There are less than 1000. Not only is there a shortage of staff, but the number of doctors and cooks is also very less compared to the number of prisoners.
A warder is required for 6 prisoners in the jail. A doctor is needed to understand the health problems of 200 prisoners. In prisons, there is no staff to treat the prisoners and there is a shortage of doctors. Such a terrible situation has arisen in various jails. Where 40 to 30 warders are managing 800 to 1000 prisoners and where 5 warders are managing the jail.
Now there are 91 jails in the state. Among them, 10 are district jails, 4 are mandal jails, 2 are special jails, 4 are sub-special jails, and the rest are 71 sub-jails. Out of 71 sub-jails, Panjepur sub-jail in Ganjam district, Lakshmipur sub-jail in Koraput district, MV-79 in Malkanagiri and Kashipur sub-jail in Rayagada district are completely inactive. According to the jail manual, one warder is required for every six prisoners. But there is a warder watching over 50 prisoners. The prisoner is taking advantage.
There are supposed to be 750 prisoners in Sehvili Brahampur Mandal Jail. Now there are more than 950. The capacity of Chaudwar jail was 1156 people, but there are 2107 prisoners. Rourkela Special Jail has less than capacity inmates. There are 743 prisoners in Baripada Mandal Jail, while there are 807 prisoners.
There are 670 women prisoners in various jails of the state. 134 of them are serving time while the rest are under-trial women prisoners. There is not a single female prisoner in 23 jails. There are only 3% women doctors in the prison department in the state. There is a system of transferring the prisoners to other prisons where there are more prisoners. They are not reimbursed for the cost of carrying them. If an inmate creates trouble in the jail or goes against the jail policy, that inmate is sent to another jail.
