Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
The precautions to be taken and the procedure to be adopted to guard against and deal with cases of escape and disturbance in prisons are as follows, namely: - (a) every prison shall have a pre-arranged signal to be known as Alarm, through which information may be conveyed to all staff members and the nearby police station of the occurrence of an outbreak, escape or other untoward events; (b) the sounding of the alarm shall be of a different tone to that used for ordinary parades; (c) promptitude in starting an alarm is a most urgent and important duty. When a prisoner is discovered to be missing or a disturbance has broken out or is on the point of breaking out, no attempt at a search or suppression as the case may be, shall be made till measures are first taken to give the alarm. The fact that the missing man was found or the disturbance put down without the necessity of doing so, shall not be accepted as palliating in any way neglect of this order; (d) the guarding personnel who first notices the incident shall keep blowing his whistle continuously and all guarding personnel on hearing it, shall repeat the whistle till the continuous sounding of the high pitch siren at the prison gate shows that the information has reached there. A sentry on hearing a whistle or a bell or gong sounding the alarm in any part of the prison or its neighbourhood, shall repeat the alarm till the whole establishment is thoroughly aroused; (e) information, as is known regarding the character of the occurrence that has or is about to take place, shall be communicated at once to the Control Room, so that the superior officers may be in a position to direct operations accordingly; (f) when a prisoner is found to be missing or in the event of any attempt to break prison or on any other disturbance taking place or even appearing imminent, an alarm parade shall be called and the Deputy Superintendent (Administration) shall at once convey brief information of what has happened to the Superintendent; (g) on hearing the sound of the alarm, the warders in charge of gangs outside the prison shall collect their prisoners and march them to a pre-arranged place; NOTE.- As an alarm parade may be ordered at any time and it is of importance that prisoners shall not know whether any given parade is merely for practice or not, the same attention shall be given on all occasions. In the case of an attempt on the part of a body of prisoners to break out of the main gate, it shall be unwise to open the gates or wickets to return extramural gangs into the prison until the enclosure in the vicinity of the inner gate is first cleared of prisoners for this reason gangs at work outside shall, on the occurrence of an alarm be chained up where the work is in progress. (h) at times of alarm, all prisoners inside the prison shall be locked into the nearest or most convenient ward, workshop, or other building, and guarding personnel on duty shall keep a watch on the places of confinement of prisoners; (i) on the sound of the alarm, every guarding personnel (except warders in charge of gangs), shall proceed immediately, no matter where or how engaged or whether in proper uniform or not, to the prison armoury and arm himself with lethal and non- lethal weapons with sufficient ammunition. He shall then fall into line and place himself under the orders of the Superintendent or other senior officer present; (j) the procedure to be followed by the Superintendent must necessarily depend on the character of the occurrence with which he has to deal. In all cases, however, a sentry shall be posted on the roof of the main gate or other position where he can command a view of the interior of the prison, and two small packets, each in charge of a Head Warder or senior Warder, shall be dispatched to take up positions near the rear angles of the prison and instructed to prevent any attempt on the part of prisoners to scale the walls in that direction; (k) few guarding personnel be set aside as a reserve to render assistance at any point where their services may be specially required and with instructions to proceed to the spot from which the sound of a rifle shot comes (guarding personnel in need of assistance shall fire a shot in the air to intimate the fact); 1386 HARYANA GOVT. GAZ. (EXTRA.), DEC. 30, 2022 (PAUS. 9, 1944 SAKA) (l) if it be a case of escape or disturbance outside the prison, it shall be the duty of the Superintendent to dispatch his spare men in search of the missing prisoner or to take measures to quell the disturbance, as the case may be, using his powers with discretion and effecting his object with as little display of force as is under the circumstances necessary; (m) in case it be a case of riot or disturbance inside the prison, the Superintendent shall lead his men to put it down. Before taking such a step, however, he shall first satisfy himself through enquiry from the sentry on the roof of the gateway that there are no prisoners in the enclosure in the vicinity of the gate. The gate shall not be opened till the crowd is dispersed, and this shall be effectually done from the gateway roof. He shall then lead his men in double file or in “threes” between the gates. When the outer gate has been locked, the inner one may be opened and the men marched in double time to the scene of the disturbance, to act as the officer in command may dictate; (n) whether an alarm is real or false all the details, from the preliminary whistle of the guarding personnel to the conclusion of the search for the missing prisoners or the suppression of the disturbance as the case may be, shall be carried out. To accustom warders to the different circumstances with which they may be called upon to deal and test their preparedness to turn out at short notice, an alarm parade shall be held randomly at any hour of the day or night without previous warning and started from one of the place where prisoners are usually assembled; (o) in the case of an escape or disturbance at night or after all the gangs are inside the prison, the same method of starting an alarm shall be followed namely the blowing of a whistle and the communication of the necessary information to the Control Room by the patrolling officer, if after lock-up or by some junior official if before that time. A sentry shall be posted over the main gate and the necessary pickets sent to the rear of the prison to frustrate any attempt at an escape as is done in alarm parades by day. If it is reported that a prisoner has escaped and it appears probable that he is still lurking within the prison, warders with lighted torches shall be posted at intervals inside the enclosure walls and the remaining warders divided into two parties each with lighted torches, one to search inside and the other outside the prison; NOTE.- Sufficient number of torches shall always be kept ready for use in a box at the main gate and at the Central Control Room. (p) it is the duty of the gate sentry at times of alarm to defend the gate and to protect any officer of the prison or other person to whom a prisoner may be actually using violence; (q) absolute silence shall be preserved at alarm parades and all the details carried out in an orderly and systematic manner. The Assistant Superintendent, Sub Assistant Superintendents, guarding personnel who have to take charge of detached parties of men shall be informed before hand of the duties required of them so that they may know exactly what to do and where to go when the alarm sounds without waiting for instructions from the officer in-charge; (r) in case of a disturbance, the Superintendent shall keep his men together in line and not allow them to approach the body of prisoners nearer than thirty yards from which distance he is in the best position to deal with the rioters. A few warders shall, in all cases, be armed with batons and supplied with handcuffs to arrest and secure any ring- leaders or escaping prisoners; NOTE.- Police tear gas squads may be requisitioned in the case of emergency whenever considered necessary. (s) the alarm shall be concluded by blowing the “retire” on a bugle or sounding the alarm gong as a signal for all officers who took part in the parade to return to the prison gate, full into line, and be dismissed by the Superintendent or Deputy Superintendent; and (t) Deputy Superintendent (Administration) and Deputy Superintendent (Security) shall note in their journal the date and hour at which the parade was held, the time taken by the warders to fall in and arm themselves, the names of any subordinates who were late or absent and any defects that were noticed. NOTE. - A copy of such report shall be submitted to the Director General by the Superintendent giving details of the action proposed to be taken against defaulters, if any, immediately after holding the alarm parade. HARYANA GOVT. GAZ. (EXTRA.), DEC. 30, 2022 (PAUS. 9, 1944 SAKA) 1387 Duty of Deputy Superintendent.