Now drones to keep eye on prisoners in Maharashtra central jails

Share this News:

Mumbai – Due to the recent crises and other serious incidents inside the jail and lack of manpower to stop such incidents, now the central jail premises in the state will be tracked through drone cameras. The prison department will monitor activities of the jail inmates and the prison premises.

Yerawada Central Jail has successfully tested the drone cameras, and in the next few days the drone camera system will be used in the 10 central jails including Yerwada, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, sources said. This drone will be launched 2-3 times every day to keep a track of inmates movements. This will help the administration to prevent scuffle among inmates besides increasing the security of the prison, the source said.

The prisons in the state have all types of criminals including those involved in body offences, criminal offenses, terrorists, Naxalites and gang members. The number of prisoners in jail is increasing day by day due to rising crime.

In the last few years, Dr Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, Head of State Prison Department, has taken several new initiatives including providing video calling facility through Whatsapp to meet the prisoners’ relatives. They are continuing their efforts to reduce the stresses on security mechanisms by implementing such facilities.

The prisoners do not like the discipline environment inside the jails. Therefore, officers, employees are threatened with attacks by them. Recently a jailor was fire upon near Yerwada Jail as the accused didn’t like his strict discipline. Quarrels between prisoners and also murders have happened inside the jail premises. Illegal things are not new to the prison. Many such things have been found in possession of prisoners including mobile phone and tobacco. It can not be done without the help of some jail staffs. Therefore, the jail administration has decided to use the drone cameras to keep an eye on the prison inmates, to prevent all these illegal activities.

Drawn camera to be used in these jails

There are 9 central jails in the state, 31 district jails, 3 open jails. There are also 172 sub-jails. There are more than 32,000 prisoners in all these prisons. The sources said that drones will be started in ten jails at Yerwada, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nashik Road, Nagpur, Amravati, Mumbai, Taloja, Thane Central Jails and Kalyan District Prison.

Successful trial in Yerawada Jail

The trial of the drone cameras in Yerwada Central Jail has been taken weeks before, it has been successful. Staffs and officials will supervise this from the jail control room. Also, these drone cameras will be flown suddenly in the non-CCTV areas. In addition to the inside of the prison, the drones will be used outside the prison also.

To strengthen the safety of the drones

CCTVs are installed in the state’s jails. However, their numbers are inadequate. Nearly 450 CCTVs are needed in Yerawada Jail. However, there are only 150 cameras. Therefore, all areas can not be closely monitored. There is a big difference between funding and requirements of the state jails. The drone costs less than a CCTV camera. Therefore, the option of drone cameras has been selected, so that the jail administration can monitor the entire area. As soon as the illegal activity is found, it will captured on camera immediately.

The prison department has been told that there will be no need for permission for using the drone, and will be informed about this by giving a letter to the home department.