Maharashtra jail Covid case tally touches 1,000
The number of Covid-19 cases reported among inmates lodged across jails in Maharashtra crossed the 1,000-mark on Friday and now stands at 1,007, which include six deaths and 814 recoveries. As on Friday, 26,308 inmates were lodged across 45 jails in Maharashtra.
The six deaths were reported from Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison, Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Central jail and prisons in Dhule and Amravati.
Nagpur Central Prison has recorded the maximum number (219) of Covid-19 cases. Prison officials have, however, claimed that all the 219 inmates have recovered from the infection. Jail authorities at Nagpur prison have conducted 616 Covid-19 tests among its inmates.
Arthur Road jail, which is one of the most overcrowded prisons in the state, and houses several gangsters, terror suspects and high-profile economic offenders, reported 182 cases of Covid-19 among its inmates, while 46 jail officials also tested positive for the virus. The jail was also the first in Maharashtra where the case was detected, after a 45-year-old inmate tested positive on May 5 at Sir JJ Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for a paralytic attack.
Sangli and Akola district prisons have reported 145 and 99 Covid-19 cases, respectively.
According to officials, of the 6,177 tests conducted across all central, district and open jails in the state, 781 were by Arthur Road jail, which houses more than 2,500 undertrials, against its capacity of 800.
After Arthur Road and Nagpur jails, the most number of tests were conducted at Akola (569), Aurangabad (517) and Yerawada prisons (506).
However, eight prisons – Sawantwadi district jail, Sindhudurg district jail, Yerawada open jail, Nanded district jail, Nandurbar district jail, Washim district jail, Bhusawal sub-jail, Morshi open jail and Nashik Borstal School – have not conducted any Covid-19 tests, said authorities.
Among the jail staffers, the state prisons department has conducted a total of 1,560 tests, of which 293 results have come positive. No deaths have been reported, and 268 staffers have recovered.
Prison officials claimed that they are regularly screening prisoners and those who develop any symptoms are sent for Covid-19 tests.
A total of 10,476 inmates have either been released on bail or parole since March 25 to prevent overcrowding, as the total capacity of in jails across the state is only 23,217, said authorities.
“All possible efforts to decongest prisons are being taken, but some of them are still overcrowded. Also, bail is granted by a court and not the prison authorities,” said Sunil Ramanand, additional director general (prisons). “The most important thing to notice here is that we have been able to successfully contain the Covid-related deaths in prisons,” Ramanand added.
According to Madhurima Dhanuka, programme head, prisons reforms programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), though decongestion is an important step to control the spread of the virus in jails, it is not a complete solution.
“Healthcare services to prisoners, ensuring social distancing norms among them and sanitisation are important issues that should be looked into by the jail authorities,” she said.
Dhanuka further added that prison-wise monitoring, both internally and externally, is very important. “This can be done through the board of visitors (BoV) or by forming a nodal committee in every prison, which can ensure the compliance of all the safety guidelines for the prisoners. The committee can monitor the effectiveness of the preparedness of the prison authority to ensure the effective response to Covid-19,” she added.
According to Dhanuka, many restrictions are imposed by the prison department, which undermine the rights of the inmates. The nodal authorities need to ensure that the rights of the prisoners are not unduly restricted or suppressed.