Koraput Jail: Where prisoners suffer incarceration and earn income | India News

Proposes to operate fly-ash brick kiln and a petrol pump by inmates
NEW DELHI: A more than a century-old circle jail in Odisha’s tribal-dominated Koraput district is synchronizing ‘crime and punishment’ with ‘reforms and income’ to enable prisoners to sale various items produced by using their skills in handicrafts, agriculture, tailoring, weaving and by operating fabrication and pulverizing units.
Established in 1908 and having a capacity of 1003 prisoners, a surprise visit by Justice Sanjeeb Panigrahi of Orissa HC and his suggestions opened a new chapter for the prison and its inmates – upgrading of sanitation infrastructure, hygienic condition and establishment of small-scale industrial infrastructure.
Jail authorities also started honing and imparting skills and crafts to inmates in weaving, growing vegetables, tailoring, and fabricating metal products. “These products and vegetables are sold regularly in specially organized markets. The sale of these products, including for the current financial year, is expected to touch Rs 80 lakhs by March 31, 2025,” Jailor L B Dash told TOI.
The Jail has already deposited around 50 lakhs as revenue receipts with the state government. Rest of the amount is paid directly into the bank accounts of the inmates at the rate of Rs 145 per day for skilled labour, Rs 110 for semi-skilled, and Rs 95 for unskilled ones, senior Jail superintendent Kuanr Marandi said.
Of around 500 inmates, 128 have chosen to engage in various activities run by the jail. On completing their prison term, they return home with a good amount of money. But the thrust of the initiative is to enable them to self-sustain by engaging in a vocation in which they got trained during their imprisonment period, the jail officials said.
The officials said DG (Prison) Arun Kumar Roy has in principle agreed with the proposal to set up a fly-ash brick industry and a petrol pump, in collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, in the land owned by the jail to engage inmates after their release as a measure of rehabilitation.
Inmates engaged in fabrication unit are making various household items like almirah, rice containers, utensils stands, wall hangers and steel trunks of different sizes, while those working in the weaving unit produce handloom items like shirt pieces, bed sheets, curtains, towels, doormats, handkerchiefs, aprons, salwar suits, saris etc.
In the pulverizing units, the prisoners produce turmeric and millet powders, while others make different varieties of bamboo crafts using bamboo grown in the jail garden, which also grows organic vegetables which are sold to the public through the jail’s retail counter.
The Jail authorities have moved the Koraput District Magistrate for training inmates under PM Viswakarma Yojana which could offer a better rehabilitation platform for inmates after their release.