Four inmates die of Covid in Maharashtra jails in a fortnight

Four prisoners have died of Covid in state prisons in last two weeks

Four prisoners have died of Covid in state prisons in last two weeks. The casualties occurred in Mumbai’s Arthur Road central jail, Byculla’s women’s prison, Taloja prison and Nagpur prison. Cases of active cases of Covid among prisoners have also slightly increased in last two weeks.

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According to the prison officials, till April 30, a total of nine Covid deaths were reported across the jails in state. The death toll jumped to 13 till May 14.

Currently, there are 411 active cases in state jails, which includes 317 prisoners and 94 prison staffs. The maximum active cases have been reported in Kolhapur jail (83) and Thane prison (66), a jail officer said.

Seeing surge in cases of infection in the second wave the prison authority had decided to carry out random testings in jails. As a result of this drive last month, major outbreak of Covid was detected in Byculla’s women prisons where nearly 40 prisoners were found Covid-19 positive, including the Sheena Bora murder case accused Indrani Mukerjea. Most of them have recovered now.

Since last April, prison authorities have conducted 69,818 Covid-19 tests across 47 prisons and jail administrative offices in the state. A total of 3,757 prisoners tested positive for Covid-19, of which 13 have succumbed to the disease. 3,427 infected inmates have recovered fully.

To minimise the impact of the infectious disease in jails, the prison authority last month has started building ‘two-tier protection’ system. Along with temporary prisons, that were set up last year across the state, this year the arrangements are also made for Covid care centres with the help of the local administration.

If a new prisoner is to be lodged in a jail, they will have to mandatorily undergo Covid testing and spend 14 days at a quarantine centre (temporary prison), irrespective of their test results. The prisoner will be admitted to a regular jail only if they show no symptoms after 14 days.

If a prisoner shows any symptoms during their stay at the centre, they will be shifted to a Covid care centre for treatment. If their condition deteriorates, they will be hospitalised. This way, confirmed cases and suspected ones will be separated. This system will keep an effective check on the entry of infected prisoners in jails, thereby preventing further spread of the infectious disease in jails, claims a prison officer.

As prison authority believe that the main reason for the spread of the virus in jails is overcrowding, hence jail superintendents across the state are working in close coordination with the undertrial review committees, headed by sessions judges, to enable regular review of decongestion of prisons, a senior prison officer said.

Since March 2020, around 10,900 inmates have been released to reduce overcrowding. Approximately 34,000 inmates are lodged against capacity of 24,000 in prisons of Maharashtra.