MUMBAI: Arthur Road jail became the first jail in Mumbai metropolitan region to come up with 20-odd isolation cells to keep prisoners with cough and other coronavirus-like symptoms, if any. The prisoners will be kept there before being sent to Kasturba hospital, said a senior official. Entry of new inmates to Byculla, Arthur Road, Thane and Kalyan jails has been stopped, and they are being lodged at Navi Mumbai’s Taloja jail.
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Special inspector-general (prisons) Deepak Pandey said that in a week, 370 were moved from the crowded Arthur Road jail to Taloja. “Now we have 20-odd isolation cells at Arthur Road jail. New inmates being admitted to the four jails will be sent to Taloja. All jails have been told to make maximum use of video-conferencing for an inmate’s hearing in any court,” said Pandey. The 370 inmates moved to Taloja include high-profile prisoners but the authorities did not disclose their identities.
Meanwhile, Taloja jail authorities temporarily discontinued visiting hours for kin of undertrials following the Covid-19 outbreak to avoid crowding. Jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar also suggested that the court send only those accused of serious crimes to jail to avoid overcrowding and grant regular or provisional bail to petty criminals.
(With inputs from George Mendonca)
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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-20-arthur-road-cells-for-inmates-with-symptoms-of-coronavirus/articleshow/74741263.cms
