Escape reality

Tamil Nadu's Department of Prisons had set itself a hugely challenging target of collecting 100,000 books this year for inmates across the 130 prisons in the state. This is part of a larger drive to rehabilitate prisoners and it needs the support of book lovers across the state. It would be quite easy to get, say 500 copies of books from a publisher trying to dump them, but the Department's goal is to have members of the public donate books they have found useful - that way, it would impact the prisoners positively. 

As far as I can tell, they have already collected about 35,000 books. These will go to the prison libraries once they've been validated for their content - and also to make sure there are no rock hammers hidden inside them, I would imagine. 

So, if you have books to donate (preferably Tamizh, but any language is fine), do call +91 44-28521306 or +91 44 28521512. They'll guide you on where you can drop of the books. If you have a lot of them to donate, they may even come by to pick them up. But make sure you keep your translation of Le Comte de Monte Cristo away!

 

Coincidence?

Passing by this building a couple of days ago, I was struck by something that I'm sure is entirely coincidental. You see, this building, which is the new Ladies Hostel of the Madras Medical College stands on the spot where the Chennai Central Prison used to be. 

This prison was the new jail; though it was established in 1837, it continued to be the 'new jail' until the Puzhal prison came up in the late 1990s. That was because there was an older Debtors' Prison, which was a little further to the north, in the Mint area. That stopped functioning in the 1830s, and since then, those buildings have been put to other uses.

And what did that end up being? Well, the Old Jail Road runs from the Mint Street Clock Tower to the Bharathi Women's College. As I had said, it is entirely coincidental that the spot which supports women's education was once a jail, much like this one here. Entirely coincidental!

 

 

Prison gate

It is now over 5 years since the Madras Central Jail was demolished, making way for the new block of the Madras Medical College there. For the last few years of its existence, the Jail at Park Town had no inmates, all of them having been moved to the sprawling campus of the new, model prison complex at Puzhal. The earlier Central Jail in Chennai had about 11 acres of space; the suburban train track ran right next to it. The noise of traffic would not have been very far, either. 

The Puzhal complex is far bigger. For starters, it is not one prison, but three. The complex houses the Chennai Central Prisons I and II, each with a capacity of 1250 inmates. Then there is the Special Prison for Women, which can hold 500 women prisoners. All these are spread out over an area of 212 acres, almost in the middle of nowhere. At least, when the prison started functioning, there were not many other establishment on that stretch of the NH5, about 25km out of Chennai. 

Even now, there are not too many reasons to stop at Puzhal. The locality has a population of about 30,000, most of who seem to be living just across the highway from the prison gate. From the highway, the entrance looks quite neat, with arches above the gate not quite indicating what lies within. The prisoners here surely get a greater sense of loneliness than in the crowded Chennai facility earlier!