Kannur to get state’s first jail museum

Kannur: Kannur central prison, the first central prison in the State that was established in 1869, is all set to create history, with the first jail museum in the State, which would come up in its quarantine block soon.
“The government has approved the project, and now we will have to consult an expert regarding the curatorial aspect as well as the interior design and selection and display of the items,” said jail superintendent Ashokan Arippa.
The museum, which is the first of its kind in the State, will showcase rare items like the uniform of the jail staffers since the British period, guns, important documents, as also the model of the gallows and the noose that were used to hang the prisoners in those days.
“We have a whole lot of records, and other items that would arouse the curiosity of the common man as well as history enthusiasts, and these would be displayed in the quarantine block of the jail, which is no longer in use,” he said.
The prison has a huge collection of gazettes from the British period to the post-independence period. The gazettes range from the St George Fort Gazette to the ones with the emblem of Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments. The ones with Kerala government emblems give a picture of its transformation from a single elephant and coconut tree in the emblem to its present form, said jail officials. The jail which executed 75 convicts after 1947, the last one being Ripper Chandran who was hanged in 1991, would also display the convict record.
Since the documents are very old, and also highly valuable from a historic perspective, they have to be preserved carefully for which the support of an expert would be sought.
A segment of the records with the details related to the leaders imprisoned during freedom struggle, and also the records pertaining to the 1921rebellion apart from the Kayyur struggle have already been retrieved and this would also be part of the exhibits. Also, there are some rare items like an old water pump manufactured in Manchester, England, by Crossley Brothers, which was recently recovered from the junk. Similar articles would also find place in the museum.
The quarantine block was established at a time when the medical facilities were limited to check communicable diseases. So the prisoners were first made to stay here for a few days to confirm they have no contagious disease before shifting them to the cells.
The authorities selected this double-storey building with twenty cells, because it is no longer in use and also because of its vintage value. Once they get the expert opinion about the way the museum should be designed, the budget would be fixed and the work would begin, said the jail authorities.