Impossible to shift Arthur Road jail, says IG (prisons)

DNA asked inspector general of police (prisons) Surendra
Kumar if Arthur Road jail has outlived its utility

RR Patil announced in the assembly that the jail has become overcrowded. What is the actual situation?
Current situation is normal but it can definitely be better. There are around 2,000 inmates lodged in the jail. Recently 120 Somali pirates were caught by the coast guard and the navy. Of them, 105 were initially kept at Arthur Road jail and have now been moved to Taloja.

Arthur Road is probably the only jail in the world to be located in the heart of a big city. With Taloja functional, do you think there is a need to shift it outside the city?
Talk of shifting Arthur Road jail outside the city is premature. We have plans to shift 300 to 400 prisoners to Taloja after two months. Taloja jail has some space to accommodate these inmates, but they do not have the staff to supervise them. There is a freeze on recruitment of prison guards all over Maharashtra but there are chances that the recruitment process will begin soon.

Is there enough space in Taloja jail to shift all the prisoners from Arthur Road?  
It is not possible to shift all the inmates from Arthur Road jail to Taloja, but we can shift 400 to 500 inmates there.

With video conferencing, do you think there is need to produce prisoners in court physically?  
The video-conferencing system is currently only allowed for remand hearing and not during the trial phase. It is not advisable for all cases to go for video-conferencing. Arthur Road jail is more convenient for the police to produce the inmates in court at the time of trial and bring them back.