Jails in Rajasthan identifying spaces within premises to isolate coronavirus suspects

JODHPUR: Jails in Rajasthan are gearing up to receive prisoners, some of whom could be Covid-19 positive, once the lockdown is lifted.
The jail authorities believe that as police and the courts get back to their normal routine after the lockdown ends, prisons across the state will receive new inmates. To deal with situations where new prisoners test positive for Covid-19, a move has been initiated to create separate spaces that would act as isolation or quarantine wards in jails.
The authorities are identifying space within state jails that have not been of any significant use or have been left unused for long, to keep new inmates under isolation.
“The move is aimed at creating more space in the central jails, especially with a view to accommodate new inmates that are expected to be received in bigger numbers in comparison to the lockdown period,” said DIG (Jail) Kailash Trivedi.
In this pursuit of creating space, female inmates have been shifted to other jails so that the cells for them could be used for keeping the new inmates. “We have shifted female inmates of Jodhpur Central jail to Ajmer jail and have planned to keep the prisoners from Jodhpur, Phalodi and Bilara at Jodhpur jail,” Trivedi said.
Similarly, female inmates from Kota have also been shifted to Ajmer, while those from Bharatpur and Alwar have been shifted to Jaipur Central Jail and so on.
Terming it a temporary arrangement, Trivedi said the spurt in the number of inmates post-lockdown might take the government off-guard and the administration will rush for exploring a solution.
“So, we are ensuring that adequate space is generated in jails well in time to ward off the threat of infection,” the officer said.
Jodhpur Central Jail has received over 100 inmates in 50 days of lockdown and all of them have been kept at the industrial facilities of the jail. But since they are old buildings, the jail administration will be accommodating new inmates in the women’s jail, which is newly constructed.
As a matter of fact, all jails have stepped up practicing precautionary measures with the reports of inmates in Jaipur Central Jail testing positive for Covid-19.
The entire premises of Jodhpur central jail was sanitised twice on Saturday. District & Sessions judge Siddheshwar Puri also visited the jail on Saturday and gave necessary directions to the jail administration.
It may be noted that by the order of the District Legal Services Authority, all the new inmates are being taken only after their screening by the district administration so as to avoid any prospect of infection on the jail premises.