Over 300 prisons running at twice their capacity | India News

On paper, India’s prison crisis generally levels out as a neat average. Occupancy runs at 121%, budget increased, new capacity added. The lived reality is less reassuring In some parts of the country, prisons are running without doctors, without counselors, and barracks are full of inmates even after they are full.New data, presented last week at a national consultation on prison overcrowding by the India Justice Report in collaboration with a field action project effort by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, shows the extent of the strain. More than 300 prisons across India are running at double their capacity, a level where even basics like sleeping space, healthcare and supervision become difficult.The prison capacity report warns that state and national averages often mask ground realities. Individual prisons reveal much more extreme pressure points. In Delhi’s Central Jail No. 4, overcrowding has increased steadily since 2020, reaching 550% in 2023. Danapur sub-jail in Bihar and Gumla district jail in Jharkhand operated at over 300% capacity, while Kandi sub-jail in West Bengal was the highest at 2020% at 2020%.The biggest reason prisons are so overcrowded is not convictions, but delays. About 76% of India’s prison population consists of undertrials, many of whom have not been convicted of any crime. They spend a long time inside. The share of undertrials sentenced to three to five years in prison has nearly doubled over the past decade, and in 2023, nearly one in four undertrials nationwide will have already spent between one and three years in prison. The ratio is higher in West Bengal, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir.Who gets stuck in this waiting room of judgment is not random. About two-thirds of undertrials and about 70% of convicts come from SC, ST or OBC communities who often have less access to legal aid and fewer resources to obtain speedy bail. Although data on caste is unavailable, the overrepresentation of marginalized groups within prisons suggests social inequality.Around 30% of guarding staff positions are vacant nationwide, while 29 states have not approved a single mental health professional for prisons, despite increasing stress and self-harm among inmates. Although the Model Prison Manual mandates 1,150 psychiatrists nationwide, only 65 positions have been approved and only 35 have been filled, leaving a policy vacuum in prison mental health care. Medical care is similarly stretched, with some states averaging one doctor for every 797 inmates and worse ratios. Karnataka and Nagaland report that there are no prison doctors, and instead rely on occasional visits from district hospitals.For Prof. Vijay Raghavan, project director of Prayas (TISS), the issue is how to reform who. “Usually when you talk about overcrowding, you say we need more space, toilets, beds… But how can we look at it from a different perspective where even if prison capacity doesn’t increase too much, we can still have better lives and have fewer people in our prisons,” he said, arguing that the focus should shift from building more prisons to non-custodial options.About 30 NGOs in the consultation, many of whom work inside prisons, said the shortage was exacerbated by restricted access. Human rights lawyer Ajay Verma points out that this is when states choose Maharashtra And while Karnataka still allows social workers to go to jail, many others do not. “Security concerns can be addressed through police verification rather than denial,” he argued. what irks Raghavan Religious groups are often allowed in, while trained social workers are kept out.Verma’s teams regularly meet prisoners during visits. When trust is built, prisoners begin to talk. “Regular, sustained meetings, for a few focused hours once per week, can make the difference between prolonged detention and a viable bail application,” he said.

A CSO working in Karnataka recommends that a social and economic profile be made of each undertrial at the time of admission, recording family ties, residence and livelihood. If shared with the court, this data can support bail on personal bonds. Southern states often show lower occupancy rates, sometimes below 100%, but the same CSO warns that this is partly because new prisons are built and not necessarily a real reduction in incarceration.For Murali Kornam of the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, meaningful reforms depend on how early civil society intervenes. “Getting bail pending trial after three months makes no sense. You are expected to be there for three months in any case. But because of our intervention, we were able to get it 15 days after arrest, that is the hallmark of intervention,” he said, stressing the need to strengthen prison legal aid clinics.Cornam argued that social workers are often more effective than lawyers in the early stages. “They’re able to identify multiple needs,” he said, pointing to the many undertrials who stay inside despite bail orders because families aren’t notified or can’t navigate the system. But money alone cannot solve the problem. Although prison budgets have increased in recent years, many states still spend less than Rs 100 per day on each inmate, even as new criminal laws under the BNNS Act are expected to further increase the number.Advising, Salman Azmi, Member Secretary, Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority, said that judges today are more sensitive to prison conditions, as prison inspections are now institutionalized. But the real challenge, he argued, is to stop incarceration before it starts. “Many problems start at the police station. A structured pre-arrest legal aid system could prevent thousands of people from entering overcrowded prisons in the first place.“For now, review committees have made only a small dent in reducing pressure, with just over 1% of prisoners released nationwide, which is not just a problem of numbers, but one that plays out every day behind prison walls.