Chandigarh, August 18
The Faridabad jail authorities have taken that extra stride to make life all the more bouncy for undertrials. It has, for the first time, allowed them to put on their sports shoes.

For years, the jail authorities had dithered on the issue of allowing undertrials to slip into joggers. And the reason behind their hesitation was not really hard to comprehend. They were apprehensive that the undertrials would cover that extra mile between confinement and freedom.

In fact, they ran away from the very idea of providing them with sports shoes, as the powers that be feared they “could easily run away after escaping from custody”.

But now the jail authorities have realised where the hard leather shoe pinches, and have permitted them to take long strides toward comfort.

The Faridabad jail is not the first one to boot in the concept of sneakers for the undertrials and is, perhaps, not the last one. The march towards liberalism is being hailed as a commendable step, especially when even prisons like Tihar do not allow sports shoes due to security reasons.

This is not all. The Faridabad jail authorities have also allowed the prisoners to be provided with bed sheets from relatives during the meetings. Again, security concerns had prevented them from allowing the inmates to snuggle under the sheets. The authorities were apprehensive that prisoners would either use the sheets to scale the insurmountable prison walls, or else strangulate themselves by hanging.

The Haryana Jail Reforms Committee today brought to the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s notice the initiation behind both steps. Set up on express directions of the high court, the three-member committee, comprising Justice JS Sekhon, VK Kapoor and RR Bansal, placed their report before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari.

The report said: “Earlier sports shoes were not allowed, as it was felt that after wearing these shoes, the undertrials can easily run away after escaping from custody. However, in accordance with the directions of a Judge, the undertrials have been permitted to wear shoes…. The prisoners have been allowed to take chaddars/bed sheets also from the relatives…” Taking the report on record, the high court has fixed December 12 as the next date of hearing in the case on jail reforms.