New visitors’ room at Burail jail yet to see the light of day

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 9

The four-year-old proposal to have a new visitors’ room at Burail jail, which will have a shatterproof glass partition and phones through which inmates and people visiting them will be able to have a conversation, is yet to see the light of day.

The new modernised visitor’s room was conceptualised in 2015. According to the planning, the room is supposed to have a glass partition and phones to have a conversation. At present, inmates and visitors have to sit at a distance with iron bars on both the side and a gap in between. Jail staff is deputed there to ensure that visitors don’t handover anything to inmates. However, the possibility of visitors handing over banned substances to the inmates cannot be ruled out.

Recently, the jail authorities recovered charas and opium from the barracks of two convicts. The recovery of banned substance from the barracks has once again raised concern over inmates getting access to addictive substance.

“Once we come up with the room that has shatterproof glass, chances of handing over anything to the inmates will end,” said a jail official.

Moreover, with a large number of inmates and visitors present in the room, it is tough for them to have a peaceful conversation due to loud noise as everyone is trying to communicate through the iron grills. The new visitor’s room will also address this problem.

The proposed room

According to the planning, the room is supposed to have a glass partition and phones to have a conversation. At present, inmates and visitors have to sit at a distance with iron bars on both the side and a gap in between.