State announces two new jails in Thane, Yerawada

Mumbai: The state home department has said that two more jails with a capacity of 3,000 each will be bilt in Thane and Yerawada in Pune to tackle the overcrowding of prisons

Mumbai: The state home department has said that two more jails with a capacity of 3,000 each will be bilt in Thane and Yerawada in Pune to tackle the overcrowding of prisons.

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A question related to the state’s prisons was asked in the legislative council by MLCs Shashikant Shinde, Amol Mitkari, Manisha Kayande, Vilas Potnis and Sunil Shinde on Friday.

Replying to it, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the official capacity of all prisons is 24,722 and till January 2023 end, there were 41,075 convicts and undertrials in these prisons. He said Mumbai (Arthur Road), Thane, Yerawada and Nagpur are the most crowded prisons.

The state government officials said that a 5-acre plot was offered for a new jail in Turbhe Mandale.

Funds have been sanctioned in the budget 2023-24 for Yerawada open jail, according to the reply of the home minister.

Construction of more barracks was being undertaken at Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Satara, Solapur and Nagpur jails. A barracks for 60 inmates was near completion at Arthur Road jail. New jails are also coming up at Gondia, Bhusawal and Hingoli and plans have been sent for finalisation at state police housing corporation.

New jails are also coming up at Palghar with a capacity of 1,500 inmates and Ahmednagar with 500.

In the reply, Fadnavis said an NGO, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, was helping inmates with free legal aid and over 1.24 lakh inmates were freed from jails from 2016 to 2022.

He said that a cell has been set up in each jail where prisoners can approach to get bail if they have completed more than half of their sentence.