TN jail inmates generated Rs 10 cr profit in ’17: NCRB

CHENNAI: At a time when quite a few government departments are in the red with regard to revenue generation and are trying to keep up with various expenses, the TN Prisons Department has a different story to share.

As per the statistics released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), prison inmates in Tamil Nadu generated Rs 56.83 crore through goods produced in 2017, while the government had only spent Rs 46.30 crore on them in the corresponding period. During that year, inmates managed to rake up 22 per cent profit for the Department by clocking more than Rs 10 crore income than the expenditure, statistics show.

The financial performance of TN jails is second to Telangana jails, which has generated products valued at Rs 59.92 crore while the expenditure on them was just over Rs 20 crore.

Maharashtra jails come third by producing products worth Rs 30 crore closely followed by Rs 29.38 crore by inmates of Kerala jails.

Railway police DGP C Sylendra Babu, who was heading the TN Prisons in 2017, said that the revenue generation model has been working well in the jails across the State. “At that time, we had initiated a petrol bunk project and some of the fuel stations are still functional. These kind of projects help generate revenue,” he added. Apart from revenue generation, jails in the State also help inmates with vocational training. Those who complete it get a diploma, which, from a TN jail, is one of the most prestigious and respected here, the official added.