Shaheed Jubba Sahani Central Jail. Telegraph picture

Bhagalpur, Aug. 12: Convicts can look forward to a more meaningful life after their release as Shaheed Jubba Sahani Central Jail has initiated various reforms.

Sadanand Choudhary, a lifetime convict, takes regular classes of other prisoners. Bikash Kumar, another lifer, remains busy with the printing press on the jail campus while many others like them are trying to change their fate.

Reforms like literacy drive and job-oriented works to rehabilitate prisoners have been started. “We have started welfare measures and vocational training for them,” said Jitendra Kumar, the superintendent of the jail.

The printing press inside the jail is the first in the history of prisons in the state. “The press installed in 2008 was non-functional. I joined in early 2010 and the press started functioning from November. By March 2011, the press had supplied 54 different items to all 54 jails, including eight central jails in the state,” Kumar said.

Kumar said the press recently printed more than 87,000 copies of Right to Service Act, which would be implemented in the state from August 15. Besides, it has started getting orders of stationery items required in the offices of inspector-general of police, Bhagalpur Range, senior superintendent of police, district magistrate, deputy development commissioner and district judge.

Kumar recalled the days when he decided to make the press functional. “There was not one trained person here and no outsider was allowed inside the jail premises. But we managed to find some experts and assigned them to provide training to some inmates. After three months, the press started functioning,” he said.

Kumar said initially there were 100 prisoners who worked in two shifts. Now, another 100 have completed their training and joined work. “We earned more than Rs 15 lakh out of materials supplied to other jails till March 2011,” he added.

The printing activities have influenced other inmates who have joined the literacy drive, which was initiated from July 2011. “Umesh Yadav, a hardcore criminal in highly protected third sector in Shaheed Jubba Sahani Central Jail can now read English. He has shown a keen interest in learning the language,” Kumar said.

According to Kumar, 450 inmates inside the jail and another 400 in Special Central Jail, Bhagalpur, have been attending the literacy drive programme sponsored by the directorate of education. For this six-month-long literacy mission, Shaheed Jubba Sahani Central Jail has been divided into eight centres, while the Special Central Jail has been split into seven.

“For the first time, we have purchased books costing over Rs 10,000 for the jail library on the choice of the inmates like Varanasi Subramaniam, a CPI(Maoist) activist, and others,” he added.

Subramaniam, with a dozen hardcore rebels, have been kept in confinement in the third sector of the jail. They spend their time reading books.