Jammers to be installed in UP prisons

To prevent the use of cell phones by prison inmates jammers would be installed in 10 high-security prisons of Uttar Pradesh within a month, an official said on Wednesday.

This was one among the many decisions taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan, he added.

These prisons include the Central jail Naini, state jails at Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, GautamBudh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar and Sultanpur. Installation of CCTV surveillance units will also be undertaken in 23 jails on priority, the top bureaucrat ordered.

"After operationalisation of video conferencing facility in 14 courts and jails for remand of prisoners in Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Bareilly, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur, Agra, Faizabad, Saharanpur and Pratapgarh, similar facility in remaining six district courts of Amethi, Amroha, Hapur, Sambhal, Shamli, Chandauli, and in eight jails - Adarsh Karagar Lucknow, NB Niketan Lucknow, Central Jail Bareilly, Varanasi, Fatehgarh, Agra, Sonebhadra and Kishore Sadan Bareilly will also be operationalised soon," he added.

All district magistrates and district police chiefs have also been asked to make surprise inspections at prisons to ensure that no illegal practices are taking place there, Ranjan added.

Many Uttar Pradesh prisons have been in news for all the wrong reasons in the past, including violence by inmates. Use of cell phones, jail officials and police admit is rampant and brazen across the jails.