First national conference on 'prison design' in Andhra on Tuesday

The first ever national conference on "Prison Design" will begin in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday aimed at providing a platform to the police officers, prison officers and architects from prison department to meet and deliberate upon issues relating with planning, design and constructions of prison, the Home Ministry said on Monday.

The two-day conference, hosted by the Director General Prison Andhra Pradesh and sponsored by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), will also deliberate upon the safety and security need as well as administrative ease of day to day functioning of the prison.

"The idea of conference is also to incorporate new construction technology, information and communication technologies and modern safety and security gadgets in prison administration, besides ensuring conducive living environment in a holistic sense," a Home Ministry statement said.

The deliberations of the conference will focus on other issues like design criteria of region-wise categories of jails, space requirement for different activities in the prison complex, inter-relationship of various activities in the prison complex and their layout, use of latest technology for prison design and construction, health and hygiene of inmates and overcrowding in prison and sharing of best practices by states.

Security aspects regarding perimeter wall height, electric fencing, segregation walls inside prison, watch towers, high security block, quarantine block, CCTV, metal detector, luggage scanners and construction details are also part of discussion.

Deputy Chief Minister (Home and Disaster Management) N. Chinarajappa will inaugurate the conference.

"Prison administration is a very important aspect of criminal justice system. Though as per the constitutional provision, it is a state subject but the Central government over the years has been providing all the requisite support and assistance to modernise the correctional administration system in the country," said the statement.

It further said the BPR&D is committed to provide synergetic platform to all prison professionals, police officials and civil architects to evolve better "Prison Designs" suiting to the safety and security needs of the prison, ease in handling the administration of the prisons on one hand and provide conducive structures for humane living conditions for the inmates as per the constitutional mandates.

--IANS

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