West Bengal's second open jail will come up at Durgapur

KOLKATA: In order to give jail inmates some amount of comfort and freedom and reduce pressure on the existing jails most of which are overcrowded, West Bengal government has decided to set up an ""Open Correctional Home"" at Durgapur in Burdwan district, the second such home in the state for convicts.

West Bengal minister for correctional administration department, Haider Aziz Safwi said on Wednesday that ""only those prisoners who are in their fag end of serving jail terms would be lodged in this home and they will be free to come and go outside, mix with their families and earn livelihood on their own. The minister informed that the capacity of the first open air jail at Lalbagh under Murshidabad district has the capacity to accommodate 80 inmates and the proposed jail in Durgapur would be able to keep 30 prisoners.

Asked whether there was chance of prisoners fleeing while remaining outside the correctional home, he said there was only one example where an inmate who was suffering from cancer fled, but was later apprehended.

Sometime later the prisoner had committed suicide in jail, the minister added. As jails in different districts were overcrowded, there was a plan to set up a district jail at Tamluk in East Midnapore district and another at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district.