157-year-old prison gets advanced safety features

MYSURU: The 157-year-old central prison has now enhanced its security with advanced machineries. To prevent prisoners from smuggling narcotic drugs and mobile phones inside, the authorities recently installed an advanced baggage scanner machine.
The prison, which was established in 1862 on nearly 22 acres near Fountain Circle, has a glorious past as freedom fighters like K Hanumanthaiah, MV Krishnappa, S Nijalingappa, Sharada Prasad and Dr Narasimhaiah were confined to it during freedom struggle.
The prison was upgraded to central prison in 1984 and was made to accommodate 330 male prisoners and 32 female prisoners. At present, the inmates have doubled. However, the prisoners have over the years been caught smuggling ganja and mobile phones.
A prison official said some of the prisoners try hiding ganja and mobile phones in their bags and clothes while entering the prison.
“When the prisoners’ relatives come to meet them, they bring these items, including cigarette packs, drugs and other items which the prisoners try to sneak into the jail. We manually check their bags and have managed to catch such prisoners,” he said.
To prevent such items from being smuggled inside the prison, the authorities have installed a baggage scanner at the entrance of the jail recently. The machine is an x-ray inspection system for screening carry-on baggage. It is similar to the machine used in airports to check the baggage of the travellers. “The machine has excellent image performance and object identification capability. The prison staff will verify the details of the baggage in the computer installed next to the machine,” the officer said.
Mysuru prison chief superintendent P V Anand Reddy told TOI that the baggage scanner was installed to prevent prisoners from smuggling ganja and mobile phones in their bags. “The scanner will prevent such items from entering the prison premises illegally. We have also installed CCTV cameras to check the movement of the inmates,” he said.