Feni District jail has been shifted to a new address after almost 100 years.
On early Saturday morning, 800 prisoners of the jail were transferred to the new premises in five prison vans, in the Ranithat area under heavy security including 100 policemen, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members, and civil dressed police.
Chittagong Range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police AKM Fazlul Haque was present at the time of the transfer.
The DIG said: “District executive magistrates and mobile courts coordinated with us at the time of the transfer as precautionary measures.”
Meanwhile, a jail official has expressed his doubts about the security measures at the new premises.
The officials said: “The new jail premise is five times bigger than the old one but there are only 53 prison guards instead of the required 116. For this it will be tough to guards such a huge compound with limited workforce.”
When asked about the issue, Jail Super Md Rafiqul Kader declined to comment on the matter.
However he said: “The prisoners will be relieved because of the extra space this new place has, which was previously difficult for them at the old one.”
On November 1, 2018, Prime Minister inaugurated the jail through video conference.
The construction of the jail began in 1996 over a seven acre land costing Tk39 crore.
The jail compound has 28 buildings with modern facilities including two watch towers, CCTV cameras, a 2.5KV sub-station, 10KW solar panel, 20KV generator and a rain water harvesting plant.
It also has a modern reception, underground water reservoir and a parade ground.
The jail can hold 350 prisoners.
In 1925, on a 1.85 acre land a sub-jail was built which had 172 prisoners at the time. It became a district jail in 1998. But the place had no district jail facilities.
The previous jail was always overcrowded with prisoners four-five times the capacity it can hold.
