Khulna: A new prison with modern facilities has been opened in Khulna on a limited scale. The new prison has started its operations with 100 prisoners sentenced to hard labor and non-hard labor from the old prison.
On Saturday (November 1), at 11:30 am, the prisoners were brought to the new prison in prison vans from the old prison under tight security. The prison authorities welcomed them with flowers at the new prison.
Khulna Divisional Prisons Department’s Deputy Inspector General of Prisons (DIG Prison) Md. Monir Ahmed, Khulna District Prison Jail Superintendent Nasir Uddin Pradhan, Deputy Jail Superintendent Abdullah Hal Al Amin, Muhammad Munir of the district and other senior officials were present at the time.
On visiting the new prison, it was seen that there are paved roads, colorful buildings, parking tile sidewalks, a mosque and a hospital inside the prison. There is a separate boundary wall around each building built for prisoners, so that one category of prisoners cannot communicate with another category. A total of 57 structures have been built, including 11 buildings for prisoners.
To strengthen security, a wall about five kilometers long has been built inside the entire prison. The gallows is located in the southwest corner of the newly built prison. The gallows room, made of gray tin sheets and corrugated iron roofs, is claimed by the prison authorities to be the ‘most modern gallows’ in the country.
According to prison sources, a total of 600 manpower is required to operate the old and new prisons in Khulna, but there are currently 208. Recently, 44 more people have been appointed. For now, the two prisons will be operated with limited manpower. According to the government’s decision, prisoners from Khulna metropolis will be kept in the old prison and prisoners from 9 upazilas of the district in the new prison.
This new prison has been built as a modern correctional facility. There are separate buildings for undertrial and convicted prisoners, separate barracks for women, juveniles and girls, a hospital, work shed and motivation center. There is a 50-bed hospital for the treatment of prisoners, and a school, dining, library, salon and laundry have been built for the families of prison guards. There is a day-care center for female prisoners including children, where general prisoners will not have access.
Nasir Uddin Pradhan, Jail Superintendent of Khulna District Jail, said that the long wait has ended with the transfer of 100 prisoners. Since it is a new jail, there may be many challenges. 100 convicts have been brought in the initial phase.
Public Works Department officials said that the new prison has a total of 52 structures. This prison can hold a maximum of 4,000 prisoners. It has been designed as a correctional facility. In addition to separate units for undertrial and convicted prisoners, separate facilities have been set up for juvenile and female prisoners.
It is learnt that the new prison complex has been built on 30 acres of land on Khulna City Bypass (Rupsa Bridge Road) Road. In 2011, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the construction project of the central prison in Khulna with an initial budget of Tk 144 crore and a deadline of June 2016. After several extensions of the deadline and two budget revisions, the project cost stood at Tk 288 crore. Although the prison has a capacity of 4,000 prisoners, the current infrastructure can accommodate 2,000 prisoners.
