SURAT: Their stars may not be shining as bright, but every stone they pick up to work upon, sparkles like a diamond.

With that vision to perfection Lajpore Central Jail (LCJ) inmates have successfully been producing over 25,000 pieces of small-size natural diamonds every month.Unbelievable, but if the Diamond City polishes 95% of world's diamonds, city's jail also has a small, but significant contribution to take credit for.

As many as 107 prisoners are working as diamond polishers behind bars in the jail's polishing unit.

The prisoner artisans have been trained for various types of cut and polishing work and earn up to Rs 20,000 every month depending upon the work and the profile of their jobs."Ours is the only jail probably in the world where natural diamond cutting and polishing takes place inside the jail.

The unit is working smoothly without any complaint," said J N Desai, superintendent of police, LCJ.Remarkably, around 3,000 prisoners are lodged in LCJ and a vast majority of them work on various trade activities including diamond polishing, furniture making, snack making, painting, sculpture, and photo copy, among others.'Despite being in jail, I can support my kin' Vipul Mer (33), serving a lifer, has been lodged in jail for a decade now.

Mer works as manager in the unit and earns up to Rs 20,000 depending upon the output per month.

"I was a diamond artisan before being lodged in jail.

I started working here when the unit started and despite being in jail I can support my family financially."Of the total earnings, a prisoner is supposed to keep only Rs 2,100 per month to spend for their personal expenses in the jail.

The remaining amount is sent to their families."I have learned diamond polishing after I was lodged in the jail 11 months ago," said another fellow prisoner, Satyam Pal (23), who added hat he now earns around Rs 8,000 per month.

"I hope to keep working as a polisher even when I am out of jail," he said.