that also affects them psychologically and negates any chances of reform the letter exposes various pertinent problems of jails the officials in the jail said that the solution goes beyond modernisation programmes but against that there are over 60000 inmates making their lives miserable jails have been a state subject since the first constitutional framework was placed in 1919 legal experts too opine that overcrowding and lack of adequate facilities for prisoners go against the constitution the problem of overcrowding in jails has gained serious proportion overcrowding use of mobile phones and drugs in various district jails by prisoners was widely seen and admitted by various government officials the modernisation programmes also addressed the bettering of civic facilities in jail premises which however seemingly have gone unaddressed so far on the use of drugs by prisoners the director said that the prevalence of the problem reflects on the efficiency of prison staff in performing their duties to enforce expected levels of screening against smuggling of contraband in the jailswhile now the admission comes from none other than the ministry of home affairs government of india goi which has admitted that the conditions of jails in the country have not improved despite modernisation programme undertaken since 2002the admission comes in response to the feedback report prepared by the criminal justice centre of the ram manohar lohiya national law university in the state capital which has been organising personality development programmes for the jail staff and officials for example in up as against the desired ratio of one jail official over 60 prisoners the figures stands something like 1300 which the mha declared as alarming the mha official further admitted of lack of jail staff to manage the prisoners a senior jail official said that quite a few prisoners have high political connections which is a deterrent after all a prisoner is a human as well said constitutional expert and dean of rml law university cm jariwala arora also expressed the ministrys regret over the jail authorities inability to prevent the use of mobile phones and drugs in jails by the prisoners lucknow all states can embark upon such projects by including the same in their annual action plan for the forthcoming phaseii he said in an apparent remark on the jail authorities in the states arora said that the participants should have given their feedback on the programmes he said stopping short of saying that they did not it is no more the case now said ln mathur another legal expert one such training programme began on monday with participation of jail authorities from uttar pradesh karnataka haryana and tamil nadu while discussing various issues pointwise the director said that the mha started an ambitious modernisation of prison scheme to address the problem of overcrowding and separation of undertrials from prisoners in 200203 he said that this is attributed to the laxity of enforcement by prison staff against smuggling of contraband items into jails even they are helpless said an official