Chennai: Keeping true to the adage ‘adversity breeds innovation’, a few Puzhal prison inmates have managed to breed poultry to meet the jail kitchen demand. Due to their efforts, the central prison will soon attain self-sustenance with regard to chicken. The inmates are entitled to 150g of chicken curry each, along with rice, on Wednesdays and Sundays.

“We need 1,350kg of meat every week to serve all prisoners,” said an officer.
Upon a suggestion from prison superintendent Krishnaraj and jailer Shanthakumar in Oct 2024, a few inmates, who had worked in or associated with poultry farms previously, set out to build sheds, each measuring 1,760sqft. Braving the monsoon season, the men completed the construction in 40 days. “We bought one-day-old chicks from a private farm and released them into the sheds on Dec 27. We introduced 1,500 more chicks in each shed on a weekly basis so that we can harvest the chickens every week without break,” said a prison official.
The first set of fully grown chickens will be harvested this week. “We also engaged veterinarians to monitor the chicks daily. The sheds are sanitised regularly to ensure their safety,” said the officer. A prison department employee in Palayamkottai, who ran a poultry farm before joining the govt job, also volunteered to assist with the shed installation and maintenance of chicks. A team of seven inmates is engaged in the poultry farm work now.
The waste collected from the poultry sheds will be used in the prison’s biogas unit. “We are planning to achieve self-sustenance without purchasing goods for the prisoners, as per the prison manual. Even in the case of vegetables, we have been mostly using the prison campus yield,” said another senior officer.
He said that stopping the purchase of chicken for prisoners in Puzhal alone would help the department save at least 1.4 crore a year. Soon after achieving self-sufficiency, the excess chicken will be sold from a prison outlet next to the fuel refilling station run by the prisoners, said the officer. Skinned chicken will be sold to the public at market price.
“We are feeding the chickens three types of food – pre-starter, starter, and finisher food, imported from a particular feed manufacturing company. Moreover, the veterinary doctors will also ensure the health of each chick raised on the poultry farm run by the prisoners,” added the officer. There are 4,500 prisoners in the three jails in the Puzhal prison complex. Prison-1 is for convicted prisoners, and Prison-2 is for remand prisoners. There is a separate special prison for women.