The number of prisoners in India’s prisons is increasing and it is becoming difficult to meet their needs. Discussions have intensified regarding the implementation of new reforms in the judicial process to decongest the jails. In view of the increasing congestion in India’s prisons, experts are calling for new reforms in the judicial process to reduce the time taken for disposal of cases. This can reduce the number of prisoners staying in jail.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has recently released the ‘Prison Statistics’ report. According to official NCRB data, three out of every four prisoners lodged in jails in India are known as undertrials. In the district jails of the country, prisoners are staying at an average rate of 136%. There are 136 prisoners staying at the accommodation of one hundred prisoners. At present, there are more than 4,88,500 prisoners lodged in 410 district jails of India.
According to the NCRB data, the number of convicted prisoners has seen a decrease of 22 percent in 2020 as compared to the year 2019, but the number of undertrials has increased. In December, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) report came out, which said that the number of people in prison has increased by 23 percent in the last two years.
More than nine lakh people were arrested during the corona epidemic. As a result, the average rate of prisoners staying in jail increased from 115 percent to 133 percent. According to Madhurima Dhanuka, head of CHRI’s Jail Reform Programme, “The number of prisoners in jail is increasing day by day. His time spent in jail waiting for the outcome of the trial has also increased in the last five years. In the year 2020, there were more than 20 thousand women in the jail inmates, out of which 1,427 were women along with their children.
After the announcement of a nationwide lockdown in the year 2020 due to the Corona pandemic, the Supreme Court had directed the constitution of committees in each state to suggest measures to decongest the prisons. Many prisoners were then released temporarily, but within a year they were again jailed. Experts say that courts should take special steps to set new norms to ease the bail process, especially in cases where trials go on for a long time and the accused are in jail for years.
According to experts, the time taken in the hearing should be reduced. At present, there is no such mechanism in the country through which the prisoners are heard. Technically, prisoners in prison are entitled to respect and rights in accordance with national and international law.
More than 70 per cent of undertrials in Indian prisons are from marginalized classes, castes, religions and genders.
The areas of Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir have the highest number of undertrials. It is followed by Bihar, Punjab, Odisha and Maharashtra. According to Pratiksha Bakshi, Associate Professor, Center for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the rate of custodial deaths has increased by seven per cent in the year 2020.
Unnatural deaths in prisons have increased by more than 18 percent. These include suicides, accidents and murders in prisons. 56 prisoners died in the year 2020. According to Bakshi, the government and the courts should adopt a sensitive approach based on the health and gender of undertrial prisoners. Jail inspectors should be held accountable for custodial deaths and other incidents.
increased private complaints
In the last one year, a lot of petitions related to private complaints of prisoners have reached the courts. These petitions were related to refusal to be admitted to the hospital, confiscation of letters, demand for home-cooked food, meeting the family members. According to experts, one of the reasons for overcrowding in prisons is gender which is often overlooked, especially when it comes to bail, parole, furlough and detention.