Tamil Nadu jails top in rehabilitation

During 2013, 1,042 inmates from Tamil Nadu prisons received financial assistance and the state topped the list. Gujarat comes a distant second with just 191 prisoners getting financial assistance.

In Tamil Nadu, a total of 1,346 convicts were rehabilitated last year while J&K, which is second in the list, has rehabilitated only 93 convicts. Similarly, Tamil Nadu tops the list of prisoners to whom legal aid was provided with 4,819 of them benefitting from the scheme, West Bengal comes second with legal assistance to 2,964 priso

ners.

TN prisons give Rs100 per day as salary for skilled workers. This is after Bihar jails where skilled workers get Rs121 per day. Semi-skilled inmates get Rs80 and unskilled, Rs60 per day as wages.

However, during 2013, TN prisons also had the highest number of undertrial prisoners booked under terrorist and disruptive activities Act. It was was as high as 76 while the number all over the country was just

172.

The state stands second in detaining foreigners under special laws after West Bengal. TN jails had 216 foreigners detained under the Registration of Foreigners Act while West Bengal had 1,435.

Interestingly, Gujarat tops the list of number of prison inmates with mental illness at 633, followed by AP, 409, and MP, 366. Tamil Nadu had 44 inmates with mental illness as on December 31, 2013.

In the country there are a total of 1,391 prisons with a total capacity for 3,47,859 inmates. But as on December 31, there were 4,11,992 inmates in Indian prisons, 18.4 per cent higher than the total capacity.