SHILLONG, March 21: The state government is yet to hand over 25 acres of land at the New Shillong Township to the Department of Prisons and Correctional Services for the setting up of the central jail.
“We will ask the PWD (Buildings) to prepare the master plan for the central jail project once the land is handed over to us. I am sure things will start moving forward once the master plan is ready,” IG (Prisons), Mariahom Kharkrang said on Monday.
Stating that it will take some time for the project to materialise, he said funding will be decided by the state government.
Kharkrang revealed there are currently 464 jail inmates (448 males and 16 females) at the Shillong District Jail although the capacity is only 175.
“The decongestion of the Shillong District Jail will happen only after the completion of the Nongstoin District Jail project and the setting up of the central jail,” he said.
Earlier, Kharkrang had revealed the officials of the department, along with the chief architect of the PWD (Buildings), had visited some of the good Central Jails outside the state.
“We will not be able to set up a massive infrastructure like the central jails in other states. We are going at a smaller scale,” he had said. He had also stated that the central jail will help segregate undertrial prisoners and convicts.
Shillong jail inmates to be trained in sports
A programme to train the inmates of the Shillong District Jail in carrom and volleyball was launched on Monday. It is part of the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) “Parivartan – Prison to Pride” initiative to train prison inmates in select sports across the country. The Department of Prisons and Correctional Services is coordinating with the IOC.
The programme was jointly inaugurated by Kharkrang and IOC’s Executive Director and State Head of District Prisons and Correctional Services, Shillong, G Ramesh.
“We will be starting the coaching in carrom and volleyball. We are planning to have a similar programme in other prisons such as the ones in Jowai and Tura,” Kharkrang told reporters.
Stating that it is up to the inmates to decide if they would like to be part of the initiative, he said some 70-75 inmates are likely to take part in the month-long training.
“We would request the IOC to continue with the coaching if more inmates are willing to be trained,” Kharkrang said.
He said there is a space for coaching for volleyball and badminton in the Shillong District Jail. “We have enough space for holding coaching in football in Tura and Jowai prisons. But there is a paucity of space at the Shillong District Jail,” the IG (Prisons) said.
On the reforms taken up by the department, he said the first thing it did was it had changed the nomenclature of the Prisons department to Department of Prisons and Correctional Services.
“During the past one and half year, we have taken a lot of other initiatives like starting skill development to help the inmates to become employable to earn their livelihood,” Kharkrang said.