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Mangaluru: Department of prisons has initiated the process for setting up a state-of-the-art central prison at Mudipu in Bantwal taluk.

 On completion at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore, it will be the 10th such facility in the state after Shivamogga, which is all set for inauguration, noted H N S Rao, director-general of police (prisons).

 The state government has already released Rs 2 crore for the central prison and earmarked Rs 7.5 crore for the facility this year, he said.

 Dedicating the new visitors’ gallery and laying foundation stone for a welcome arch for the district jail on Wednesday, Rao said few remaining works on the gallery will be attended to shortly. "We need to insert glass panes between the cubicles separating inmates from their visitors and install intercom facilities," he said. The all India prison manual stipulates that such glass panes be bullet proof, he said adding such glass panes have been installed in Shivamogga prison.

 The department is in possession of 67.89 acres of land at Mudipu for the central prison project. It will be an all-inclusive facility with provision to hold 1,000 undertrials and convicts. "The blue print has provision for automatic doors with spikes at the entrance," he said adding this will be in place if PWD to whom the work has been entrusted is able to procure the same. "If they can’t get the same, we will go in for semi-automatic gates and crash barriers," he said.

 The stand out provision in the blueprint is provision for a helipad that has been incorporated on a suggestion from the home minister, he said. It will have a separate staff quarters complex to house 270 jail staff, a library, hospital and workshops as well, Rao said. The district prison is vastly overcrowded and houses 410 under trials, double its capacity, he said.

 With prisons department going in for video-conferencing in a big way, the current issue of shortage of escort staff too will be addressed once the new central prison comes up. "We have already issued 32 video-conferencing units to 22 courts and 10 jails in the state," he said, adding additional video-conferencing units have been procured at a cost of Rs 3.3 crore. Three such units have been given to the district prison and the court here, Rao added.

Sasikala is being treated as any other prisoner: Rao

Mangaluru: Although the prison manual mentions three categories of prisoners like A, B and C, the state prisons department treats all jail inmates - under trials and convicts - equally and does not adhere to the same, asserted H N S Rao, DGP (Prisons).

 The prisons department strictly goes by the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules) and makes no exception for anyone including high-profile political prisoners.

 Making this observation over reports of preferential treatment given to AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala, undergoing prison term following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case at Parappana Agrahara, Rao told reporters here that the prisons department has stopped following the prisoner categorization decades ago. "Sasikala is being treated as such by the jail authorities without any preference," he said.

 The chief superintendent at Parappana Agrahara is empowered to deal with any minimal additional requirements that a prisoner may need in view of their health condition, if any, he said, adding when Sasikala’s counsel sought certain facilities, the court left it to the discretion of the prisons department and norms prescribed in the jail manual. He scotched reports that Sasikala had been given AC, water heating facilities and other such luxuries. "She is in a prison," he said.