Detention Centre in Bongaon for foreign inmates who have completed their prison term

Kolkata: The state correctional administration department is coming up with a detention centre at Bongaon in North 24-Parganas to lodge foreigner inmates who have already completed their prison term.

"Most of the foreigner inmates lodged in our correctional homes are Bangladeshi. The number of Bangladeshi prisoners is around 283. The matter was taken up with the Bangladeshi government and recently 100 prisoners have been shifted to the neighbouring country after following proper procedure. The remaining inmates who have already completed their term will be shifted to the detention centre as soon as it comes up," said Ujjal Biswas, state Correctional Administration department in response to a query from Congress MLA Asit Mitra regarding steps taken by the state for lodging the inmates after they complete their term. The department presently has facilities of four open air correctional homes across the state where 400 inmates who have completed life imprisonment are lodged. They are allowed to remain in the open from 7 am to 8 pm in these open air facilities.

"The Supreme Court has recently given some direction regarding what should be the term of a life convict. We will seek clarification from the Centre regarding the verdict of the apex court on how many years will be considered as life term," Biswas said.

At present, the total number of correctional homes in the state is 60, among which only one is a Women Correctional Home. The state government has taken a slew of measures to provide vocational training for the inmates so that they can become self reliant after they are released from the correctional homes.