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A neatly decorated entranceway opens into a constrictive transition lined with situation barracks — quiet, sparse and unexpectedly orderly. Inside 1 room, a azygous furniture with a navy-blue expanse rests against a plain achromatic partition beside an earthen cookware of drinking h2o and a compact washroom space. A heavy achromatic grill separates the occupant from the corridor outside, but the barrack itself is decently sized, good ventilated and stripped down to bare essentials.
A fewer steps away, different barrack houses 4 beds arranged other 1 another, recreating the shared surviving spaces communal wrong prisons. Further up stands the high-security barrack, enclosed wrong 2 layers of grilled structures that restrict question and visibility. Inside are lone the basics — a bed, a tiny table, a lavation country and a h2o pot.
These are not cells holding inmates, but portion of a caller immersive inaugural astatine Hyderabad’s Chanchalguda Central Jail, wherever mean citizens tin present take to walk 12 oregon 24 hours experiencing situation beingness firsthand. The interest for the 24-hour acquisition has been fixed astatine ₹2,000, portion the 12-hour acquisition volition outgo ₹1,000. Entry to the Chanchalguda Prison Museum has been priced astatine ₹10 for students and ₹20 for different visitors, portion children beneath the property of 10 volition beryllium allowed escaped entry.
Prison outbreak: On the wellness situation successful India’s prisons
Launched by the Telangana prisons section connected Tuesday (May 12, 2026), the paid programme titled “Feel the Jail” allows members of the nationalist to unrecorded similar inmates wrong specially designed barracks, implicit with situation food, regulated routines and restricted question aimed astatine offering a realistic glimpse into incarceration.
The inaugural was launched alongside the Chanchalguda Prison Museum, present the 5th jailhouse depository successful the state aft those astatine the Cellular Jail successful the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Alipore Jail Museum successful Kolkata, Bengaluru Central Jail Museum and Goa Central Jail Museum.
The situation acquisition area, though humble successful scale, feels strikingly intimate. The simplicity of the barracks stands successful crisp opposition to the darker chapters of India’s situation past preserved wrong the adjoining museum.
Inside the museum, visitors are confronted with reminders of colonial-era incarceration done aged punishment devices, robust shackles, humanities situation records and uncommon artefacts that papers however inmates were erstwhile subjected to terrible carnal and intelligence torture.
Telangana Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla, portion inaugurating the museum, said it was not simply a postulation of humanities objects but an effort to amusement however prisons successful India evolved from punitive spaces into correctional institutions.
Recalling the attraction of prisoners during the assemblage era, the Governor described however inmates were erstwhile forced to basal for hours with rocks tied to their feet and their hands restrained.
“They could neither beryllium nor sleep. Their bodies were breached physically, mentally and emotionally, but their tone could not beryllium shattered,” helium said. “This acquisition gives america a glimpse into what our state fighters and earlier prisoners endured earlier Independence.”
Drawing from his ain imprisonment during the Emergency, the Governor spoke emotionally astir situation reforms and the request to humanise jails.
“I spent 19 months and 30 days successful jailhouse during the Emergency. That is erstwhile I understood what situation beingness genuinely means and the challenges inmates face,” helium said.
He recalled aboriginal serving arsenic prisons Minister and introducing reforms aft witnessing situation conditions firsthand.
“In those days, inmates would instrumentality themselves manually wrong barracks. For the archetypal time, we introduced fans, televisions and canteens wrong jails. The inmates were genuinely happy. Reforms began with tiny acts of dignity,” helium said.
He stressed that prisons should not relation simply arsenic detention centres. “Not each idiosyncratic wrong a situation is beyond redemption. Jails indispensable go correctional centres wherever radical realise their mistakes and rebuild themselves,” helium added.
Telangana Director General of Prisons Soumya Mishra described the motorboat of some the depository and the “Feel the Jail” inaugural arsenic a important milestone successful the improvement of correctional medication successful the State. “The nonsubjective is not entertainment, but awareness, empathy, subject and understanding,” she said.
Mr. Mishra said the inaugural was designed peculiarly for students and young citizens to amended recognize the worth of freedom, lawful behaviour and societal responsibility. “People often spot prisons lone arsenic places of punishment. We privation nine to recognize that prisons contiguous are besides spaces of rehabilitation, betterment and accomplishment development,” she said.
She said the depository had been cautiously curated to papers the travel of Telangana’s situation strategy from a punitive instauration to a modern correctional model focused connected rehabilitation and reintegration.
The depository includes sections connected situation history, transgression and punishment, aged jailhouse structures, punishment instruments, situation industries, inmate-made products and situation labour contributions to nation-building projects, including the operation of the Nagarjuna Sagar dam betwixt 1961 and 1968.
Another large attraction is simply a assemblage showcasing prison-made products and exhibits highlighting inmate skills, creativity and vocational grooming initiatives.
Mishra said the interest collected some from situation depository and the jailhouse acquisition inaugural volition lend to the prisoners’ payment and improvement fund.
