Prisons Dept plans to sow seeds of change in jails

Hyderabad: The Prisons Department has come out with an ambitious plan to ensure that prisoners do not recidivate once they are released. "The department has conceived a 'Grand Vision 2025' for itself. We are not in competition with any prisons department in the country or for that matter any other department in Telangana, but we are competing with the best jails in the world," Director General (Prisons and Correctional Services) V K Singh told reporters here on Thursday.

Highlights:

• Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services V K Singh says the action plan envisages reforms of prisoners to ensure that they do not recidivate once they are released.
• Jails will become a hub of economic activity by achieving a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by 2025 by selling jail-made products Rs 2,000-crore turnover through sale of petroleum products (at fuel outlets run by released inmates.

Singh said the grand vision is for five important parameters -- good administration, crime reduction, economic growth, employment generation and social services. "Our idea is to make the jails centres of economic growth, employment generation and social service. "We have a vision to make the jails an 'ashram' where prisoners will undergo positive changes. Reformation and rehabilitation programme will be of such a high order that those who enter the jail once, refuse to be a criminal in future," he said.

The jail officers should act as parents and prison life should not be retributive but elevating and transformational, he said. "Telangana jails have almost become corruption free and we have announced an award of Rs 5,000 to anybody who proves that corruption exists in prisons," the officer said.

"We have achieved such expertise in the field of management and administration that we have written to all IIMs asking them to study the radical changes brought in our prisons department. "However, still we have many miles to go and there are aberrations here and there. We want to change the very culture of the Prisons Department by 2025," he said.

The department will be a great employer by 2025. "We want to open 100 petrol bunks in the next two years that will be run by prisoners released after serving sentence and supervised by retired government employees. By the end of this year we will be opening around 50 such petrol bunks," Singh said. Under a new programme, he said, jails will be transformed into production and skill development centres.

"We will open outlets in almost 10,500 villages where jail products will be sold. We dream of giving employment to 10,500 women through our outlets and around 2,000 jobs in our petrol bunks and other ventures," Singh said. "Our dream is to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by 2025 by selling jail-made products. We also want to achieve a Rs 2,000-crore turnover through sale of petroleum products (at fuel outlets run by released inmates)," the top jail official said.