Black: the colour of money behind bars

By Mateen Hafeez/TNN

Mumbai: Arthur Road may be one of the country’s most sensitive prisons. But it doubles up as one of the busiest commercial centres that can be found behind bars: from an extra cigarette to one more pillow, everything is there for a price.

And, hold your breath, the flourishing trade is controlled mainly by foreign nationals lodged here (especially Nigerians and other Africans).

An undertrial, released on bail last month, explained how blacking coupons had become a flourishing business in the Arthur Road jail: “Inmates are not allowed to keep money in jail. They have to buy coupons from the authorities to buy stuff from the canteen. A coupon costs a rupee and an inmate cannot buy more coupons than the prescribed quantity every month. In reality, however, an inmate is not even allowed to buy the number of coupons he can legally. And it is here that market forces come into play.’’

The Nigerians, who run the coupon-blacking business, charge a commission of 30 per cent. The Arthur Road police recently raided the cell of a Dawood associate and recovered thousands of coupons, officials said.

But coupons are the only articles sold. “An inmate leaving a prison does not take with him his bedsheet and other stuff. So there are some prisoners who
grab them and then sell them to inmates who want extra bedsheets or pillows,’’ an official said.

And the baba on duty (the constable) is always in the know. No senior jail administration official, however, would come on record to speak about the market in prison.

The Times of India, May 9, 2005