During the last 6 months, as part of the efforts for prison reforms, as many as 3600 mobile phones have been recovered from various jails across Punjab, said jails minister Harjot Singh Bains on Thursday. Bains conducted a surprise raid in Amritsar central jail, where he reviewed the jail management, talked to the inmates and reviewed details of their behavior in the jail. He also recovered illegally-used mobile phones from the jail. Showing the envelopes thrown over the wall in Amritsar jail on Thursday, Bains said that this is the modus operandi used for mobile phones and drugs being sent to the jail.
He said radio frequency technology will soon be used in the jails, which is the most advanced technology in the world to jam the mobile network, as this will completely stop the use of mobiles from the jail. He said that Punjab will be the first state of the country to use this technology.
He said that apart from this, the search of the prisoners with body scanners will be started in every prison and an iron mesh will be placed on the part of the ultra-secure cell, where the gangsters are imprisoned, so that no mobile or other belongings can come from outside. “Besides this, the search of gangsters has been started twice a day and the search team is also being changed continuously. We assure that as per the wish of chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the jails of Punjab will be mobile and drugs free in the near future,” Bains added.
He said that according to the survey conducted by the department in each prison, 46% of the 33,000 prisoners are addicted to drugs and the government has started the efforts to make them give up drugs.
He said that jails are being prepared as ‘sudhar ghar’, which is being facilitated by facilities like family visits for well-behaving prisoners. The minister said that the government’s effort is to make the prisoners skilled and healthy, and ensure their return back home. He said that because of this effort, all the prisoners in Amritsar jail are utilizing their time by whitewashing the jail premises. Bains said that the training of 800 jail wardens was underway and the recruitment of 800 more wardens will be started soon.
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