Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in India to introduce community service as a punishment for those serving up to six months in jails for minor offences.
The government has also decided to enter into partnership with the private sector to set up industrial units in the jails to provide employment opportunities to the prisoners and also train them for their future life.
Also, educated prisoners will be given training to work in the business process outsourcing, which is planned to be set up in Hyderabad's Charalapally jail.
The proposed BPO is being set up by a Bangalore based IT company Radiat Info Systems, where more than 200 prisoners will be working in three shifts. The company plans to pay Rs 100 to 150 per day as wages to the prisoners.
These decisions were taken in the first meeting of the Prisons Development Board, chaired by Chief Minister K Rosaiah. The meeting was also attended by state Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy, Additional Director General of Prisons Gopinath Reddy and several other senior leaders.
Briefing the media Sabita Indra Reddy said a new bill will be introduced in the next session of state assembly to include community service among the punishments for the minor offences.
"Prisoners serving sentences to a jail term of one month to six months will be asked to render community service instead of keeping them in jail," she said.
Andhra Pradesh will be the first state to have such a system of punishment in the country, she said.
In another important move the government decided to arrange training for the educated prisoners to serve in the proposed BPO centre at Charalapally Central Jail in Hyderabad. The BPO is coming up in the jail as a public private partnership project, where the prisoners will be doing back office work for some banks.
The home minister said the government was also exploring the possibility of more public-private partnership projects in jail under which the private industries could open their units in jails.
The state government has also accepted the proposal of increasing the daily wages of the prisoners of all the three categories. For the lowest category of prisoners, who work on looms and making of furniture etc, wages have been doubled from Rs 15 to Rs 30. For the second category, the wages have been increased to Rs 50. For the third category of prisoners, who work in the agricultural fields in open jail, the wages have been increased to Rs 70.
Part of their earnings will go in to Victims Fund, set up to help the families affected by the offences committed by prisoners.
"The reforms and improvements are aimed at ensuring that when a prisoner comes out of jail on completion of his term, he is able to rehabilitate in the social mainstream easily," said the Sabita.
There are 13,000 odd convicts in the jails in Andhra Pradesh of which 2,000 are educated. The Charalapally jail alone has 2,100 prisoners.