PANAJI
Less than a decade since it was commissioned, the central jail in Colvale is today a far cry from what it was originally planned to be – a state-of-the-art modern and progressive detention centre for convicts and undertrials – evidenced in the report of the Goa State Human Rights Commission headed by former district judge, Desmond D’Costa, which highlighted the dilapidated condition of the edifices and the pathetic or absent facilities meant for the prisoners.
Much of the blame for the sorry state of affairs in the new jail is being blamed by many on the State administration’s lack of commitment to the new age philosophy of the need for ‘reformation’ of prisoners.
“Somewhere down the line the administration has forgotten the approach towards reformation of prisoners. They perhaps have gone back to the mentality of incarceration rather than correction and are negligent about prisoners’ welfare,” said Elvis Gomes, retired Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, who had served as Inspector General of Prisons when the Colvale jail was commissioned in 2015.
“The GHRC inspection report is disturbing,” Gomes, now a politician, said recalling that the new jail was quickly completed and commissioned in May 2015 after the then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was thoroughly briefed about the need for jail reforms.
He said initial hiccups were indeed faced but eventually all inmates were relieved with much better facilities than what they were used to in the erstwhile central jail at Aguada, and the centres at Sada and Mapusa.
“A proper protocol was put in place,” Gomes said, adding that a proposal he had mooted as IG (prisons) to rename the central jail as “Colvale Correctional Home” has not seen the light of day more than nine years later.
Pointing out D’Costa, the current GHRC chairman was once a Sessions Judge and has also presided over the Special NDPS Court in Mapusa, Gomes said, he is well conversant with the jail system and the need for reforms.
“I will write to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, under whom the Jail administration works to give attention to the issues highlighted in the GHRC report, especially the infrastructural shortcomings related to the toilets and basic amenities like drinking water,” Gomes said.
A 10-member GHRC team led by D’Costa had reported stark infrastructural shortcomings at the Colvale jail, highlighting dilapidated state of the buildings, inadequate toilets sans doors which compromise privacy of inmates and a malfunctioning sewage system.
The report also highlighted the lack of a female medical officer and female inmates having to rely on just a few nursing staff for their healthcare needs.
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police, Omvir Singh, IPS, admitted there is a lot to be done vis-a-vis the issues raised in the GHRC report on the jail.
Singh, who also doubles up is the current IG (Prisons), however, said that work is already in progress for some time after Sawant had convened a meeting about three months ago to tackle most of these and more issues both long term and day-to-day matters.
“The PWD is already on the job. They had been given a deadline of October 31 which has been overshot but most matters will be tackled in two months,” Singh said.
“Only the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) work will take longer. Other work will all be over in two months,” he said, adding that the mobile phone jammer system too will take more time as the equipment is sophisticated and expensive.
Singh said, the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) has been taken on board and a longer-term solution by installing newer technology for mobile jamming systems is being examined.
