Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Convicts should not be allowed to carry mobile phones in prisons”

CHENNAI: Convicts should not be permitted to carry mobile phones inside prisons when they are lodged there or return after parole. This is among the State Human Rights Commission recommendations, which have been sent to the Principal Secretary, Home. The rights body, comprising Chairperson Justice A.S. Venkatachalamoorthy and members A.R. Selvakumar and K. Mariappan, visited the Central Prisons at Madurai, Puzhal (Chennai) and Salem and heard prisoners’ grievances.

In its order, passed in a suo motu case on Monday, the commission suggested to the government that it direct the authorities concerned to set up an intensive care unit (at least with one bed facility) in every Central Prison, manned by a doctor round-the-clock. Convict prisoners whose appeals were pending in the High Court and Supreme Court should be allowed to study law or any other course of their choice.

The Commission’s order came in the wake of the unruly scenes inside the Central Prison at Puzhal last week. Trouble started after a prison warder found a convict talking on a mobile phone from his cell. During the Commission’s visit, the grievances of inmates mainly pertained to lack of required medical facilities and deprivation of facilities to pursue distance education for some convicts. It found that invariably, except in the Central Prison at Puzhal, there were more inmates than the available accommodation in other prisons.

At the Salem prison, a dilapidated/abandoned building came in handy to prisoners to commit suicide secretly. In fact, there was one such case. The Commission suggested that any dilapidated structure be demolished.

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