The Arthur Road Jail at Jacob Circle, the Byculla Jail, the Thane Central Prison and Adharwadi Jail at Kalyan are some of the prisons where undertrials are lodged till completion of their cases. However, all these jails are currently running `full houses.'

The Mumbai Central prison or Arthur Road jail, which officially has room for 819 undertrials, has 2,422 undertrials lodged in it at present. The Byculla jail, only a little distance away from Arthur Road, has a capacity for 312 prisoners but currently houses 654.

Similarly, the Thane Central prison whose official capacity is 1,105 has 2,422 undertrials in it. At Adharwadi, Kalyan, 505 undertrials are supposed to be kept, but the number has now gone up to1,527.

Except for Adharwadi prison, which was built in 1970, all the other jails came up during the British Raj. Work on construction of a jail at Taloja, Raigad, began a decade ago on instructions from the government, but it is still nowhere near completion.

The increase in the number of criminals in jails has also compounded problems of jail officials. Problems like hygiene and sanitation are of course persistent, but they are overshadowed by the phenomenon of inter-gang clashes within the jail premises.

``The undertrials don't even need an excuse to get into a fight. An inadvertent nudge of an elbow, or an extended leg which touches another gangster, can cause a violent skirmish between the gangsters,'' a jail official said.

Due to the rise in frequency of such clashes, the jails have been recently divided almost along the lines of criminal gangs. While Arthur Road jail has a concentration of Dawood gang members, the Thane Central prison has a majority of Arun Gawli men and Adharwadi has gangstersfrom the Suresh Manchekar and Ashwin Naik gangs.

The Prison Board has made efforts in the last three years to improve the condition of jails, but they haven't borne fruit in absence of co-operation from the government. One of the Board members, Meena Mutha, had suggested that if the state government provided the requisite floor space index (FSI), funds for construction of more buildings in jail premises could be obtained. However, the government turned down her offer. ``The government's negligent attitude has undermined our efforts,'' Mutha said.

Due to the slow disposal of cases, the task of escorting criminals to court and then bringing them back to jails has also proved troublesome. In most cases, the accused are taken to court only to be brought back with a date for the next hearing.

In March this year, Arthur Road prison sent 6,864 prisoners to court, but the cases of only 135 accused -- a meagre 1.96 per cent -- were disposed off. Similarly, Thane prison sent 1,487 undertrials to court, but onlythe cases of 44 -- 2.95 per cent -- were disposed off. From the Kalyan jail, 1,846 undertrials were produced in court. However, only 527 cases were disposed. The Byculla jail also produced 1,182 accused in court, but cases of only 116 were disposed.

Such frequent trips outside help prisoners to surreptitiously get mobile phones, cash, drugs, razors and such other handy items into the jail. Thane police commissioner Bhujangrao Mohite had seized several mobiles and chargers when he raided the Thane jail premises last year.

The trips also expose criminals to attacks from rival gangs. For instance, Chhota Rajan aide Sadhu Shetty was attacked by Chhota Shakeel men in Sessions Court, and Shakeel aide Feroz Konkani assaulted a Gawli man when he managed to lay his hands on a razor (where?).

``The jail administrations are governed by century-old laws. Unless the laws are amended, the situation is going to worsen,'' said a jail superintendent. The jail laws were framed in 1894. Since then, no amendment has beenmade.