Prisoners to leave jails with fat pay packet

HYDERABAD: Prisoners who will be released on remission from jails in the state soon will walk out 'rich.' With already a bank account on their names and money being deposited by prisons authorities, prisoners can get their cheque book and debit card and operate their own accounts.

A prisoner who has been in jail for, say 10 years, would have accumulated Rs 1.2 lakh which he got as incentive for working in the prison. This is only 50 per cent of their 'earnings' in the prisons as it got accumulated as fixed deposit in the bank. At the time of their release from the jail, the prisoners are given their bank pass books where the incentive money they got for working in the jail has been deposited.

Prison authorities give the inmates the other 50 per cent of their earnings every month, which they can use for themselves, like buying something from the prison canteen, or sending it to their families.

It may be mentioned here that the names of 390 prisoners have been shortlisted as being eligible according to the guidelines framed to be released soon. All of them are life convicts. When they work in the jail, the prisoners are given an incentive of Rs 70 for their work per day. They could either be working in the industries in prisons like making soaps, phenyl, steel furniture, durries or even in the bakery that has been set up at the Special Prison for Women, Chanchalguda.

Inmates of the open air jail Cherlapalli, apart from walking out 'cash rich' will also be able to have good earnings even after their release. In the last six months or so, the prisoners were being trained on how to grow organic vegetables. The training was conducted regularly by an NGO on two-acres of land on the jail premises. In cultivating organic vegetables, there is absolutely no use of pesticides. Prisoners have been taught how to prepare 'Jeevamrutham' with cow dung and urine and make use of it as pesticide.

"Once they are released from the prison, the convicts who come from agricultural backgrounds can go back to farming and cultivate organic vegetables which have a good market. They can even teach other farmers on cultivating organic vegetables," open air jail, Cherlapalli, superintendent K Venkateshwara Reddy told The Times of India.

With the experience they have gained in operating petrol bunks, prisoners who will be released can work in any petrol bunk. They can also start steel manufacturing units or work in such industries. "They can start life afresh after they are released from the prison," Venkateshwara Reddy said.

In all 52 prisoners will be released from the open air jail out of the 150 inmates who are lodged there now.