Jail inspection ‘behind bars’ in Odisha

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Bhubaneswar: Internal inspection at most of the jails in Odisha has taken a beating as the authorities of the local administration have failed to constitute Board of Visitors (BOVs) comprising both official and non-official visitors.
A recent letter of the state Directorate of Prisons and Correctional Services has revealed that the authorities at the local administration have failed to constitute BOVs for more than half of the jails in the state.
Details regarding the constitution of BOVs have been mentioned in Volume 1 of the Odisha Jail Manual (OJM), 1942. The official visitors include the District and Session’s Judge, District Magistrates or Collector, Commissioner of Police, Superintendent of Police, Chief Medical Officer, Civil Surgeon, Engineer and School Inspector. Similarly, non-official visitors include elected representatives like MLAs and MPs, members of NGOs having interest in jail management.
In its letter, the Prisons department has requested the state Home department to “issue suitable instructions to all the Collectors & District Magistrates of the sate to take early steps for appointment Board of Visitors (both official and non-official) in respect of all the jails in the state.”
The Prisons department has also mentioned about sending a similar request to the Collectors to appoint BOVs in the jails through its letter (No.13009, Dt.05 .8.2019) at the earliest.
However, the Collectors are yet to appoint BOVs even though six months have elapsed to the dispatch of the letter.
The prime responsibility of the BOVs is to carry out internal and external inspections in the prisons. They are supposed to check whether basic amenities like food, sanitation and healthcare are being provided to the prisoners or not. The board is also required to monitor the status of under-trial prisoners, staff strength at jails and various correctional programmes under taken by the government.
However, the letter from the Prisons department to the Home department revealed that the board of visitors including both official and non official members has been constituted in 14 jails in the state. Meanwhile, non-official visitors (NOVs) have been appointed in 23 jails apart from the above 14 jails.
Odisha has 91 jails including 73 sub jails, 5 circle jails, 3 special jails and one open and women jail. However, it’s an irony that the local administrative authorities are yet to appoint BOVs in 53 jails of the state.
Meanwhile, a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) – ‘Prison Monitoring in India’ – revealed that the number of inspections by non-official visitors is very less as against the mandated visits specified in the Odisha Jail Manual. Similarly, the report found that “no training is provided to the NOVs at the time of appointment and no format has been prepared for the visitors to record the visit remarks”.
This is more disturbing amidst the regular reports about grave mismanagement in the jails across the state that has been brought out by various sources during the recent period.
The CAG report of 2018 on jail management has also exposed the jail authorities who had kept convicts and under-trial prisoners in the same ward without separate enclosures in the test checked jails of the state which is a violation of the OJM rules.
The report also found inadequate medical and educational facilities and lack of proper rehabilitation training at the jails in the state.
The CAG report also came across poor and inadequate security arrangements at the jails.