Chennai: How do you prevent prisoners from attacking each other with deadly weapons? The solution partly lies in the kitchen! A day after a life convict `Welding Kumar` was stabbed to death by another inmate in Chennai`s Puzhal Prison with a kitchen knife, jail authorities are planning to outsource cut vegetables.
Often kitchen utensils and other implements are used as weapons in prison gang wars.
Interestingly, the prison manual says only boneless chicken and mutton can be served to non-vegetarian prisoners because bones can be used as weapons! Even fish is not allowed because the fins can be used as sharp objects!
Says DGP (Prisons) R Nataraj: "Apart from kitchen knives, there are also garden implements that could be used as dangerous weapons."
Two jail officials have been suspended. Another interesting fact is that most fights among prisoners take place in the afternoon when they are relatively idle.
"We now need to keep them occupied in the afternoons and also beef up our security during afternoon sessions," Natraj says.
A common joke is that sure shot places to get drugs are our prisons!
The Tamil Nadu prison department may soon set up a counter intelligence wing to indentify jail staff who help prisoners smuggle in banned items.