A hospital in every Central and Open Prison, and a Remission Committee with the Superintendent on it: the Act behind Kerala's open prison farm

Background

The open prison at Cheemeni in Kasaragod has moved to farming on a larger scale, with ₹28 lakh sanctioned by the Agriculture Department for tractors and power tillers. The statute under which Kerala runs its prisons is the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Act, 2010. Section 60 says each Central Prison and each Open Prison must have a hospital of its own, staffed by Medical Officers and para-medical hands, where sick prisoners are admitted and treated. That hospital has to carry an inpatient facility and the means to do clinical tests. Section 72 allows remission to convicted prisoners as the rules prescribe, and creates a Remission Committee to oversee how remission is worked out. The Committee is made up of the Superintendent and such other officers as the rules name, and it covers the Central Prison, the Open Prison and the Women's Prison. The kinds of remission, and the criteria for granting it, are left to the rules. Thirty life-term convicts walked out of Cheemeni together on completing their terms, which took the inmate strength to 198 against a capacity of 260.