Bhubaneswar, May 8: The state will shortly have a prison academy on the lines of the Biju Patnaik State Police Academy on the city outskirts to train 2,000 jail employees.

This was disclosed at a meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik today.

Additional director-general of prisons Pradip Kapur said the academy that is to come up at Jamujhari would impart training to the jail officials.

It was also decided to introduce eight-hour shift duty to improve efficiency of the prison employees. Besides, more number of employees would be recruited to increase the staff strength.

The state has 85 jails. It was also decided to set up six more jails at Soro in Balasore district, Patrapur in Ganjam district, Kashipur in Rayagada district, Kantabanji in Balangir district and MV 79 in Malkangiri district.

Apart from these, two model jails will be set up in Sundergarh and Cuttack, apart from two open-air jails at Jujumara in Sambalpur and Nilgiri in Balasore. The state has its first open-air jail at Jamujhari on the city outskirts where the inmates are not shackled.

Prisoners with good track record are lodged generally at this jail.

Two circle jails will be set up at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, said official sources.

More than 14,000 prisoners have been lodged at 85 jails.

The meeting was informed that steps had been taken for education of the jail inmates, their skill development and spiritual development. Twenty-two teachers have been appointed to teach the prisoners.

Matters related to education and accommodation of the prisoners’ children, legal aid to the undertrial, rehabilitation of the released prisoners and security of jails were also discussed.

The security of jails assumes importance as Maoists and gangsters are lodged at various prisons. Recently, incidents of violence have been reported at a few jails, including the Aska sub-jail. Mobile phones and drugs were also recovered from various jails, including Jharpada special jail in Bhubaneswar.