Unfilled vacancies in jail dept create huge problems

Many convicts have begun filing appeals with the additional director-general (ADG) of jails or moving the high court on account of this

MUMBAI: The jail department of the Maharashtra government is facing a severe administration crisis on account of many posts being vacant. This has also affected the process of granting paroles and furloughs to prisoners.

Mumbai, India - May 11, 2020:Mumbai Central Jail during the COVID 19 pandemic at Arthur Road in Mumbai, India, on Monday, May 11, 2020. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

The power to grant parole, which used to be with the divisional commissioner (an IAS officer), was given to the deputy inspector-general (DIG) of jails on December 2 last year. The jail department has five DIG posts but currently only two are occupied, leading to a huge backlog. Many convicts have begun filing appeals with the additional director-general (ADG) of jails or moving the high court on account of this.

The two filled DIG posts are headed by Yogesh Desai and Swati Sathe. Sathe manages the Pune and Nagpur divisions while Desai is in charge of the south region, including Mumbai. The three DIG vacancies are not being filled since those who are due for promotion are not fit because of inquiries, allegations, complaints or other reasons. The principal secretary of home (jails) Radhika Rastogi said that work had suffered a lot due to this.

The jail department is headed by an officer of additional director-general of police rank. IPS officers like Meeran Borwankar and B K Upadhyaya, who headed the department in the past, have done exemplary work. The last head was ADG Amitabh Gupta, who was abruptly transferred in July, after which Prashant Burde, who heads the state CID, was given charge. Burde, who is currently probing the caste violence in Beed and political murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in his role as CID head, admitted that the jails department was only doing fire-fighting, as his main task was to head the CID.

The state home department recently promoted many IPS officers from inspector-general to ADG but has not found any suitable candidate to head the jail department.

The ADG’s office has to deal with many issues like transfers, administration of prisons, court cases, management of prisoners and appeals by prisoners for leave or better facilities. In Mumbai, one of the main pending tasks before it is the development of a new jail at Mankhurd, as jails like the ones at Arthur Road and Byculla are packed beyond capacity. Arthur Road Jail has a capacity of 804 persons but has over 2,500 inmates. In the absence of a regular boss in the jails department, this has suffered. The expansion of Thane jail has also suffered.

Apart from this, two posts of central jail superintendent among the 12 central jails in the state are vacant. In the 47 other jails, the posts of 20 jail heads have yet to be filled.

The jails department used to earn nearly ₹20 crore from the sale of sarees, furniture, bakery products and textiles made by prisoners. This has dwindled to ₹4 crore, which recently drew a query from the finance department.

“The government needs to give urgent attention to this,” said retired DGP Pravin Dixit. “All the vacancies of senior officers in corrective services should be filled on priority. Corrective services play a crucial role in ensuring peace, law and order in the state.”