Even in prison, the rich and the corrupt have it easy. Gourmet food, booze, cigarettes and several other luxuries at the command of inmates able and willing to shell out lakhs to grease the palms of crooked jail officials, as yesterday’s front-page report in this paper highlighted.

An anonymous letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has alleged massive corruption by Thane Central Jail Superintendent Hiralal Jadhav. The letter says the superintendent allows inmates to make calls through his mobile phone, and smuggles in hashish, marijuana and alcohol with the connivance of jailors. There were also accusations that Jadhav would himself brag about greasing palms of the higher-ups to score his lucrative post. The bottom line is that money talks even in jail. For a certain price, inmates can enjoy even those amenities and comforts that are banned from jails.