District jail at Sangareddy, 65 kms from Hyderabad, has emerged as a unique correctional facility by becoming the number one revenue earner among all the prisons in Telangana.
With the inmates turning entrepreneurs and running business of nursery, horticulture and furniture manufacturing, the jail earned an income of Rs 20 lakh last year making the jail financially self sufficient.
“We have taken up several income generating programs such as growing mango and other fruit trees as well as trades like manufacturing furniture and cement rings not only to generate revenue but also to prepare the prisoners for the post-prison life”, said the district jail superintendent Santosh Kumar Ray.
This is the same jail where the old building was turned into a museum attracting several foreign and national tourists willing to taste the prison life by staying behind the bars for a day or two.
Once you enter the jail complex an unexpectedly pleasant sight welcomes you as the hard work by the inmates and the staff has turned once barren 8 acre open land into a green belt. As part of the income generating activities they have grown hundreds of mango and other trees on four acres area and the jail earned Rs 3.63 lakh by selling the mango this season.
Another unique facility in the jail is a “Ayurvedic Village” where the people can get Kerala style Ayurvedic treatment. The facility has developed so much and has attacted such a good response that it also generated at profit of Rs 3.36 lakh, the superintendent said.
The furniture manufacturing facility which was opened last year has also turned highly successful and it received orders of Rs 3.45 crore from various schools for Almirahs (cup boards), double decker benches as well as cement rings. The workshop has earned a profit of Rs 14 lakh this year, he added.
Sangareddy prison is the only jail in the country to attract tourists under its unique “Fill the Jail” program under which a tourist can experience a jail life by paying Rs 500 per day.
This program hasattracted tourists not only from different corners of the country but also from various other countries including Malaysia.