Durgapur : January 14, 2014: The second Open Correctional Home of the State starts its ode today towards a brighter tomorrow at the industrial township Durgapur in Burdwan District. The aim of the Correction procedure is to reinstate a convict in the mainstream of the society after release from the Correctional Home. The main objective of the process is, therefore, maximising the feasibility of getting a well-paid job to run the family with honour in the post-release life, which surely has to be of the same standard as that of before incarceration even if not better. To accomplish this, constant effort is put for imparting market-oriented vocational training to the inmates. The idea of the Open Air Correctional Home emerged out of this concern in the history of correctional reformation. In an Open Air Correctional Home an inmate receives a better option for choice of employment and of course a higher degree of freedom. This freedom, in course of time, serves as an acid-test for his sense of responsibility, discipline and scopes of a healthy socialization in the post-release life.
However, our State was lagging behind many other states of the country in this aspect. So far we could cater to the aspirations of the inmates, only those, who have/had an involvement with agriculture at Lalgola Open Correctional Home in Murshidabad District. Moreover, Lalgola in Murshidabad being quite far off from Kolkata, many of the eligible inmates disagree to avail the benefit of Open Air Correctional Home there. Keeping this in mind and also to pave ways for the inmates who have technical knowledge or intend to be skilled with this knowledge, we decided to have one more open correctional home at Durgapur, in Burdwan district. Presently we have been able to care to have one more Open Air Correctional Home at Durgapur. “We should take care to establish another open correctional of at North Bengal for the benefit of inmates of North Bengal Correctional Homes”, says Hon’ble Minister-In-Charge of the Department of Correctional Administration Mr. Haider Aziz Safwi.
An available building just adjacent to Durgapur Subsidiary Correctional Home has been converted into an Open Camp. A number of 35 convicts can be accommodated in this two storied barrack at this moment. There are spacious kitchen, store and sufficient arrangement of sanitation and hygiene within the barrack. “We shall take new schemes for construction of new buildings to cater more life convicts here in near future”, says Mr Haider Aziz Safwi in the inaugural function today. Mr Adhir Sharma, ADG of Correctional Services, Mr Ranvir Kumar, IG of Correctional Services briefed the concept of an open correctional home in Prison Reforms and its backdrop for undertaking the project at Durgapur in their valuable speech. Mr Siddh Nath Gupta, IGP, Western Zone and Mr Vineet Kumar Goyal, Commissioner of Police, Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate welcome the project at Durgapur and assured to extend all support to the inmates with regard to their struggle of rehabilitating themselves in mainstream society. Local welfare societies have extended their helping hands too. Two vendor’s trolleys and nineteen cycles have been handed over to the inmates.   
The flute recital by inmate Gopal Murmu is only a glimpse of enormous potentiality hidden within the inmates, which waits to be explored. This new correctional home certainly pours hopes and scope to lead a prestigious life on the inmates here.