State prisons have modified toilets, bath and visitors’ rooms
The intercommunication facility at room where relatives can now talk to their jailed members over the phone without any hassles
The prisons department of Maharashtra has recently started intercommunication facility at visitor’s room where the relatives can now talk to their imprisoned members on phone sans any hassle. Earlier they had to speak louder to communicate as the visitors’ room is generally packed with the relatives and family members of inmates.
“The intercom sets are installed at both the sides. Also, previously there was wire mesh between the inmates and their relatives. The relatives and inmates had to struggle to reach close to the window to see the face of each other. But now the wire mesh has been replaced by transparent glass. So, now, the inmates and their relatives can clearly see each other at visitors’ room,” a senior officer from prisons department told the + and added that the visitors’ room has been modified in all the ‘Central as well as district jails’ of the state.
As per the jail manuals, the relatives and inmates can meet each other for 20 minutes at the visitors’ room.
The meeting time is being monitored by a prison officer at the visitors’ room where one ‘digital watch’ has been fixed on the wall.
“Before meeting, they have to first make a request before the prison department. Now everything has been digitised. Once the request is made, the time slot is booked for the particular inmate and when their relatives come, the inmate is brought to one of the windows at visitors’ room to talk to his/her family members,” said retired Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Suresh Chavan, who is one of the members of justice Radhakrishnan committee that has been formed to improve jail conditions across state.
The CCTV cameras installed at the visitors’ room monitors the activity of inmates as well as their family members. The other member of the committee Dr. Vijay Raghavan said, “The privacy of inmates and their relatives is paramount. It is a good initiative by prisons department.”
The certain changes at prisons’ toilet are also being made at war level.
“The inmates have joint pains faced problem sitting in the toilets. They cannot sit properly, so they carried commode chair. But now 50 percent of the toilets are western style in almost all the jails in Maharashtra. Now the old age inmates having joint pain, back ache, etc wont have to carry commode chair in the toilets,” the officer from prisons department said.
The bathrooms across jails in south region have been modified to maintain privacy of inmates.