Five new vans to ferry under trial prisoners were flagged off by Inspector General of Prisons (IGP), Mariahom Kharkrang today.
The vans painted with the motto of Prisons Department – ‘Changing Life Through Corrective Steps’ were procured under the prisons reforms.
Kharkrang informed that the vans will be handed over to various District Police and Sub-Divisional Police. He said the first step under the reforms was to change lives of prisoners by initiating skill development of inmates with support from the Meghalaya State Skill Development Society (MSSDS).
The skill includes soap making, tailoring, food processing, weaving, basic computer training and agriculture. The department wants to ensure that they make efforts to provide placement to inmates after they leave the prison.
Coaching of inmates in various indoor and outdoor sports activities in collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation Limited as part of the Phase – 3 of the program titled ‘Parivantan – Prison to Pride’.
Kharkrang also informed that a proposal was sent to the Government to change the nomenclature of Prisons Department to Prisons and Correctional Services and is expecting that a notification will be issued by the Government soon.
Acknowledging that there is overcrowding in the district jail, with a total of 487 inmates, Kharkrang said that decongestion can only happen once the Nongstoiñ jail is complete.
The department is also working on the master plan for setting up of central prison at the newly allotted land of 25 acres at New Shillong Township.
“The idea of setting up the central jail is to segregate convicts from under trial prisoners,” Kharkrang said.
East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, Sylvester Nongtnger and other prisons and police officers were present on the occasion.
