Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has flagged serious lapses in Odisha’s prison infrastructure and management, including overcrowding, severely inadequate bathing facilities, staff shortages, and critical gaps in security equipment.
The latest report, tabled in the Odisha State Assembly on Tuesday, highlighted that 31 out of 87 jails in the state were overcrowded. This has resulted in congested living conditions, with inmates deprived of the minimum space required for sleeping and basic daily needs as per prescribed norms.
A test check in 15 jails also revealed significant lapses in the deployment and maintenance of critical security assets.
Staff Shortages and Security Lapses
The audit, conducted from June 2023 to Feb 2024 covering the period 2020-21 to 2022-23, also pointed to an acute shortage of guarding staff, which has left several jails vulnerable. As against 1,680 sanctioned posts of guard staff in 75 jails, only 1,282 personnel were deployed. This has lead to jailbreaks involving 29 inmates between 2020 and 2023. Advanced security equipment, such as CCTV cameras, metal detectors, baggage scanners, mobile jammers, and non-linear junction detectors, was found to be either unavailable or non-functional in several prisons.
Due to absence of these security equipment, 74 mobile phones, 56 SIM cards, one pen drive, 26 empty liquor bottles, and 1.76 kg of ganja were seized from the Special Jail in Bhubaneswar during 46 search operations conducted between 2020 and 2023. Similarly, two mobile phones and 1.19 kg of ganja were recovered from the Balasore district jail during search operations carried out between March and December 2021. “…..No action was taken against officials of special jail, Bhubaneswar, and Balasore district jail despite the recovery of inadmissible items like mobile phones, SIM cards, and ganja,” the report stated.
Inadequate Bathing & Healthcare Facilities
A major concern flagged by the CAG relates to bathing infrastructure. The Odisha Model Jail Manual mandates covered cubicles for bathing—one for every 10 prisoners along with proper arrangements to ensure privacy. However, against a requirement of 2,203 such units, only 916 were available across the state’s prisons. In some facilities, women inmates were forced to use open platforms (known as “pindis”) for bathing, raising serious issues of dignity and privacy.
The report also noted a severe shortage of medical staff across all prison hospitals against the existing bed facilities. Apart from a minor operation theatre and physiotherapy unit in Berhampur Jail, and a psychiatric unit in Choudwar Circle Jail, none of the sampled prisons had any clinical facilities available for prisoners.”
In 10 facilities, 121 mentally ill prisoners were housed alongside the general prison population without any segregation. They were not transferred to mental health institutions or safe custody facilities due to the unavailability of separate asylums, it added.
