Buoyed by the response of the only open jail at Bilaspur in the State, Himachal Government is planning to open seven more such jails in different districts to boost the prison reforms and giving an option to prisoners to integrate with the society.
According to the proposal prepared by the State prison department, the new open air jails will be opened at Shimla, Solan, Nahan, Chamba, Dharamshala, Mandi and Una. “The Bilaspur open jail established in 1960 has given encouraging results and we plan to open more such jails in other parts of state,” said ADGP (prison) SR Mardi.
Based on prison reforms, open jail concept was mooted across the country and allows the inmates to integrate with the society, with fewer restrictions. Jail inmates work during day time and return to the prison in the evening. “We are moving forward with the proposal and within next couple of months first barrack of open jails will be opened in temporary arrangements till permanent infrastructure is developed in different districts,” said Mardi.
In open jails, apart from Sundays inmates are also given annual holidays to be with their families. The inmates in open jails are those who are convicted of a crime. They are not serial offenders but those who have committed a crime at the heat of moment.low risk convicts and those with non-violent past, where it has been circumstantially established that they committed the crime by accident or in the heat of moment are the ones who qualify for the open jail criteria, laid by the Government.
At Bilaspur open jail, inmates go to work at 7am and return to prison at 6pm and if anyone is caught in some work or get delayed due to other issues, extension is granted till 8pm but they have to inform the authorities beforehand about the delay. “The open jail at Bilaspur which has 75 inmates has helped prisoners to re-integrate with the society. They take up the work at small motor workshops, shops, hotels and even in some private offices and not a single incident of escape or the inmate
committing crime has come to notice,” said a prison official of Bilaspur open jail.