Decongestion: Police residential quarters in Mandoli notified as 'temporary jail'

new delhi: The Delhi Home Department on Monday notified the declaration of the police quarters in the police housing complex adjoining the Mandoli Jail here as a temporary jail in light of the COVID-19 pandemic after jail authorities had requested the same with a view to further decongest prisons given the increasing number of cases among inmates and jail officials.

According to recent data from prisons, about 63 inmates were tested positive in which 57 recovered and two deaths were reported whereas 165 prison staff were affected by COVID-19 in which 143 recovered and 22 active cases are there in prisons. In June, Millennium Post had reported that the Delhi Prisons Department had written to the Delhi government asking for one of the police residential complexes in the city to be converted into a temporary jail so that more prisoners can be shifted out.

The notification from Home (General) Department read, "the Minister of Home, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi is pleased to declare police quarters in police housing complex adjoining Mandoli jail, Delhi as temporary jail, till further orders, in view of COVID-19 pandemic." Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel told this newspaper, "We will be starting it gradually. Once fully operational we plan to house around 2,000 inmates."

"We wrote the letter for a police residential complex in Mandoli which is situated near Mandoli Jail. It has 360 flats (in twelve towers). But presently it is being used as a government medical quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients," DG Goel had said in June.

All of Delhi's 16 prisons put together have a total capacity to house 10,026 inmates. Before the outbreak, approximately 17,500 inmates were occupying these jails. And even after temporarily releasing 3,500 prisoners, the current population of jails exceeds the capacity with around 13,500 inmates still lodged in prisons. According to officials, prison authorities are taking several measures to curb the spread of Covid inside the prisons. "Inmates cannot go to other barracks or form any kind of group and if they come out of their barracks, they must wear masks and maintain social distancing," one official said.