Overcrowding in prisons: Proposal to Maha govt seeks additional barracks in Pune's Yerawada jail

Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) Amitabh Gupta has said a proposal has been sent to the state government to set up additional barracks in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail to tackle the issue of overcrowding in the facility, which has inmates nearly three times of its capacity.

Overflowing prisons in state

As of November 2022, the Yerawada jail had 6,854 inmates against its capacity of 2,449, according to the prisons department data.

There are total 60 jails in the state, including nine central prisons. As of November 2022, the total number of inmates in these jails was 40,718 against the cumulative capacity of 24,722, as per the data.

Need for more prisons in state; Govt serious

Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Gupta said, "A proposal to construct additional barracks in the Yerawada jail was sent to the state government a few days back. Besides this, there is a need for more prisons (in the state) and the government is also serious about it."

All these are long drawn out processes and the government and the jail administration are already working on them, he said.

Gupta was speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of a Makar Sankranti special exhibition of various items and products made by jail inmates.

He said the products made by the inmates will soon be made available on e-commerce websites for the public.