The incident has prompted the state to appoint a two-member special team to investigate
The Kerala government has launched a probe into alleged security lapses in state prisons after the jailbreak of Govindachamy, convict in the Soumya rape and murder case. But key recommendations made more than a decade ago to tighten prison security remain largely unimplemented.
Govindachamy escaped from the high-security Kannur Central Jail early on Friday and was re-arrested 6.5 hours later. The incident has prompted the state to appoint a two-member special team to investigate.
A similar high-level committee was formed in 2013 after two inmates escaped from Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison. Led by then home principal secretary L Radhakrishnan, state police chief K S Balasubramanian and prisons director general Alexander Jacob, the panel proposed 18 measures to strengthen prison security. These included multi-coiled barbed wire fencing, feasibility studies for electric fencing, motion and touch sensors, automated alarms, and door-locking systems for jail blocks.
The committee also called for a ban on prison staff carrying mobile phones, recommending wireless sets for official use, and a three-month rotation of duty to prevent staff from developing close ties with inmates. It urged better accommodation for prisoners and an increase in the sanctioned strength of wardens, in line with the Udayabhanu Commission’s report and the Model Prison Manual.
Although the home department accepted the proposals in September 2013 and instructed the prisons director general to act, most remain unfulfilled. The only notable addition has been the introduction of the TETRA Vehicle Mount Radio Operation System for communications, yet mobile phones are still widely carried into prison complexes.
A prisons department source said many of the proposals could not be enforced without wider government support. “The proposal for installing sensors has been lying unattended for the past 13 years. Such gadgets could have made a difference in handling security predicaments in the prisons,” the source noted.
