As convict flees Pune’s Yerawada open prison, a look at these minimal security jails and how their inmates are picked
From good behaviour to physical health, inmates have to meet several criteria before they are selected to move to an open prison.
During a similar search at the open prison in September 2024, seven cell phones, five phone chargers, a power bank, and a vaping device were seized. (File Photo) A murder convict serving a life sentence escaped from the Yerawada open prison in Pune on Wednesday, the second such incident at the facility this year. So what are open prisons? How are inmates selected to serve their sentence in an open prison? And how does this translate into reduced sentences?
The open prison concept
The idea of having minimal-security open prisons was deliberated extensively in the mid-1950s on various international forums. In the late 1950s, a committee set up by the Indian government to revise prison rules set guidelines for establishing open prisons in the country.
In Maharashtra, the first open prison for convicts was started as an annexe of the Yerawada Central Prison in 1956. The second such facility was set up at Paithan in Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in 1968. The Paithan facility was the first separately located open prison in Maharashtra and is considered an important landmark in the history of the state’s prison administration.
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