Keep an eye on books available in jails, MHA asks states, prison DGS

NEW DELHI: The Centre has directed all states and prison authorities across the country to keep an appropriate oversight on the literature available in jail libraries to ensure that inmates are not influenced negatively and asked them to periodically verify the background of nongovernment organisations involved with prison activities.

“Effective steps should be taken to prevent prisons from becoming breeding ground for anti-national activities, for which regular inspection of prisons may be conducted,” said the ministry of home affairs (MHA) advisory to states and director general of prisons on effective management and strengthening security arrangements in jails.

The trigger for MHA advisory, issued on Monday and seen by HT, on literature accessible to prisoners is not known, but people familiar with the development said the move is aimed at ensuring “anti-national” material doesn’t reach inside prisons.

In January last year, a Mumbai court, while allowing activist Sudha Bhardwaj — arrested in Bhima Koregaon violence case — access five books per month, had said that prison authorities cannot refuse to accept books sent for prisoners but they can go through the contents for any objectionable material.

The MHA also asked jail authorities “to restrict unnecessary movement of jail staff in and out by maintaining proper entry and exit registers. Subsequently, all structure of jails and their periphery walls may be inspected, and to the extent possible, it may be ensured that distance between the outer wall and the walls of jail ward are designed in such a manner that incidents of throwing contraband items from outside the prison are not possible”.