Over 1,400 Tihar jail inmates are drug addicts
Jan 31, 2007 - 6:39:05 PM
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Speaking about the role of jail staffs in providing tobacco to the jail inmates, Gupta said he had already suspended six staffs for such illegal activities.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi, Jan 31 - Nearly 10 percent of jailbirds at Tihar jail, home to over 14,000 prisoners, are drug addicts, prison director general B.K. Gupta said Wednesday.
'It's not very good statistics but nearly 10 percent of our inmates are drug addicts. They have been taking drugs before being lodged in Tihar,' Gupta told reporters.
'Over 61 percent of the addicts were used to drugs for more than five years,' he said, adding that 46.37 percent of addicts have confessed that they took to drugs due to peer pressure and another 26.67 percent took to it due to curiosity.
Jail officials said that drug addiction is highly prevalent among the 24 to 30 years age group.
'Drug addicts amongst the age group of 18 to 23 years constitute 28.23 percent followed by 36.7 percent in the 24 to 30 age group and 29.15 percent are of the 31 to 45 age group,' he said.
Interestingly, 54.24 percent of drug addicts were illiterate and 40.29 percent studied between primary to class 10 level. 'Less the education more is the addiction,' Gupta said.
He said 1,032 drug addicts were indulging in unsafe sex and 920 had multiple partners. A little above 47 percent of these addicts are single.
Speaking about the measures being in place for these drug addicts, Gupta said: 'Earlier we had a number of de-addiction centres in our jail premises and now we have constructed a 120 bedded integrated dug de addiction centre in the jail hospital premises.'
'In 2006, 5,180 prisoners took the de-addiction treatment,' he said.
Speaking about the role of jail staffs in providing tobacco to the jail inmates, Gupta said he had already suspended six staffs for such illegal activities.
'While minor penalty were imposed on 20 staffs, another 18 paid major penalties,' he said without divulging details of the penalty.
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