Jail construction not solution to decongest prisons, thinking out of box is: Tihar DG Sanjay Baniwal

New Delhi: Delhi Director General (Prisons) Sanjay Baniwal has said construction of more jails will not decongest the prisons but the solution lies in thinking out of the box such as giving bail and adopting a pre-arrest concept.

In an interview with PTI, Baniwal said the government and the courts are seriously considering ways to reduce overcrowding.

He said the government has started thinking of making some amendments in that direction. For instance, those who have already served as undertrial after charges have been framed can be given bail or those who have served at least half of their sentence and their behaviour has been convenient need to be given parole.

"Secondly, probably, we will have to think of some out-of-the-box solutions. For example, instead of having semi-open or open jails, we can even think of making pre-arrests. In foreign countries, there is a concept of binding someone within an area before arrest. However, the convicts can be jailed," Baniwal said.

Delhi has three prison complexes -- Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini, where 19,967 inmates are lodged at present. This is almost double the capacity of 10,026 inmates.

There are 16 separate jails, including two for women inmates, in these three prison complexes.

Baniwal said every system is strained due to overcrowding, resulting in continuous pressure on the system. This, in turn, affects safety and security within the jail.

About the jail being built for high-risk prisoners in Narela, Baniwal said it is being constructed in a very specific manner to ensure that the least amount of manpower can control a majority of the inmates.

He said there will be in-house court, in-house hospital and video-conferencing in each ward so that the movement of inmates is restricted as much as possible.

Baniwal, an AGMUT cadre IPS officer of the 1989 batch, who has served as joint commissioner and special commissioner in Delhi Police besides having headed the Chandigarh Police, said the Delhi police commissioner has submitted a report to the Supreme Court, addressing necessary changes related to the number of administrative staff, organisational haul up, heightened security measures and procedural adjustments. The review of this report is currently underway.

On the jailed conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, he said, "As per my knowledge, he is not currently using a phone. The fact is that he complains about everything. Most of the staff around him are witnesses to things changing for the better. I have an officer who conducted a raid on his cell but nothing illegal was found. We treat him as a normal inmate and try to shift the staff to different jails as much as possible to avoid his nexus, as it was discovered in the past." Talking about the difficulties in jamming technology used to restrict communication of inmates to outside via mobile phones, he said the jamming solution does not work in isolation. It depends upon the way outside service provider towers are working.

"If the outside wave is powerful, it will come inside. There are always possibilities of signals filtering in, especially near the boundary areas," he said, adding that wards near the boundary areas have some chances of signals coming inside, which can be called black spots.

He also said, "Right now, the technology has not reached the stage where we can make real-time changes. That is why at times you have signal connectivity and at other times you don't." On the question of the ways to ensure that mobile phones or other illegal objects are not sneaked inside the prisons, he said people keep throwing the objects from outside.

"You need to have a proper design where you can not throw illegal things inside. But people keep throwing them. In Rohini jails, houses are literally over the boundaries. What stops them throwing things inside?" he said.

"In each jail in Tihar, we have two 20-feet high walls and a 20-feet gap. Whatever somebody can throw will land up in that patrolled area. We have tried to put a net. So whatever somebody throws up, it gets stuck in it. People keep throwing phones, data cables and drugs," he said. The Tihar DG talked about his challenges in dealing with criminals outside and inside the prisons.

Baniwal said criminal and defiant behaviour is one area that needs to be addressed in a very deliberate manner with an aim to improve the lives of the criminals.

"As the Tihar chief, I have to be a very different person. I have to be non-judgmental. Everyone comes here with a different history and baggage. If I start judging them based solely on what they did, I'll never be able to deal with them," he said.

He said, "There are a few individuals who show no improvement, especially those who have committed 40 or more murders. It is challenging to prevent actions when they are determined. In response, we have initiated anti-riot training to control them." Baniwal said, "Our aim is to ensure that an inmate completes (the sentence) here and gets employed anywhere by making some efforts. My focus is not just the Tihar prison but Delhi prisons also. it makes me happy to see the success stories."