Football Alters Jail Schedule

Meghalaya prisoners get to watch late-night matches

By E.M. Jose

 

Shillong, Jun 18 : When the Kakas and Ronaldos do their magic jig with the ball, even impenetrable jail schedules are broken to make space for the world’s most frenzied sport carnival.

Prisons across soccer-crazy Meghalaya have reworked their timetables and even installed additional television sets to allow their inmates to watch FIFA World Cup matches.

Lights are not switched off way past midnight and prisoners stay glued to television to watch the world’s soccer heroes battle it out in South Africa.

The ones to miss out on the fun are the guards on duty who have to keep vigil on the prisoners while they watch matches.

Each jail in the state was provided with a sufficient number of large screen TV sets for the World Cup after several inmates petitioned director-general (prisons) Kulbir Krishan.

“Some prisoners wrote to me to provide TV sets and give them permission to watch the World Cup matches. They said they couldn’t watch the World T20 cricket matches,” Krishan told The Telegraph today.

The jail department has provided 12 television sets — Shillong four, Jowai and Tura three each and Williamnagar two.

While others had a few 20-inch TV sets, Jowai jail did not have any TV set, as these were damaged after being struck by lightning recently.

While there are around 300 prisoners in Shillong jail, the number is 180 in Tura, 150 in Jowai and 50 in Williamnagar. “Most prisoners are fans of Argentina, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Germany,” jail staff said.

“They are free to watch TV till late night, but they should get up at 6am for the roll call,” Krishan said.

The “freedom” for the prisoners to watch the football matches, however, has resulted in additional responsibility for the jail staff. The director-general (prisons) has cautioned all the staff to be extra alert while the prisoners watch TV to prevent a jailbreak.

“When the staff are on duty, they are not supposed to watch the matches,” Krishan clarified.

Shillong jail suffered the infamous jailbreak involving hardcore criminal Full Moon Dhar. Dhar was shot dead by the police after he, along with six others, escaped in May 2009.

This year, the guards foiled another jailbreak attempt in Tura.

Though there are not many entertainment avenues in the jails in Meghalaya to keep the prisoners busy, the jail department has taken up several initiatives, including appointment of carpentry and crafts instructors.