Telangana district prison to set up open-air gym for inmates

: After providing them entertainment through FM radio facility, the Telengana Prisons Department is setting up an open-air gymnasium to promote physical health of inmates at Sangareddy District Jail.

In addition to initiatives launched to reform and rehabilitate the prisoners, the gymnasium, the first of its kind in the state, would also act as one of the useful programmes for physical fitness of those behind bars, a senior Prisons Department official said.

"Several municipalities in Telangana have started open gyms in public parks.

So we thought why can't we start in prisons?. The step is to motivate inmates towards physical exercise", Sangareddy District Jail Superintendent Nawab Shiva Kumar Goud told PTI over phone.

The jail houses 240 inmates --50 convicted and 190 remand prisoners -- and they already participate in yoga and physical training and parade activities.

Goud said the District Jail in Sangareddy is one of the model jails in India, constructed as per the model prison manual.

The open gym would be set up in one of the lawns and start functioning in the next 10 days, he said.

The inmates can utilise the gym facility in both morning and evening hours.

There is a plan to have at least 10 fitness equipments, 70 per cent of which would be procured through the manufacturing unit in Sangareddy District jail itself, the senior jail official said.

"We are reforming inmates through education, moral and physiological support and vocational training and the gym will help them in maintaining good health and physical fitness," Goud said, adding a jawan would guide the inmates in doing exercises.

Besides they would also arrange a professional trainer for initial training, he said.