THE National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report, Prison Statistics India, 2021, belies all hopes of resolving the issue of overcrowding in correctional facilities. In fact, the report presents grim statistics of a quantum jump in overcrowding from 118 per cent to 130 per cent in a calendar year.
From 2020 to 2021, the number of prisons increased from 1,306 to 1,319, improving the capacity from 4,13,033 to 4,25,609. However, this gain was nullified by the abrupt increase in the number of inmates, both convicts and undertrials, from 4,88,511 to 5,54,034, an unprecedented one-year increase of over 65,000 prisoners. It is apparent that the pace of creating new infrastructure has failed to match the trend of new admissions in correctional facilities.
Addressing a gathering of sportspersons from prisons of all states and union territories in Ahmedabad recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said prison administration had been neglected in India. He stressed the need to address overcrowding in prisons. The Supreme Court has repeatedly called on all stakeholders in the criminal justice system to reduce overcrowding to create a humane environment inside jails.
The 1,319 prisons in the country consist of 564 sub-jails, 424 district jails, 148 Central jails, 88 open jails, 41 special jails, 32 women’s jails, 19 borstal schools and three others. The number of district prisons is inadequate, considering that we have 773 districts in the country. There is a need to construct prisons in a time-bound and planned fashion over the next five years to completely end overcrowding.
Five states have an alarming occupancy rate of over 150 per cent Uttarakhand (185 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (184.8 per cent), Delhi (182.5 per cent), Sikkim (166.9 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (164.1 per cent).
The Centre and the governments of these states should work together urgently to create more correctional facilities near the judicial complexes in unrepresented towns and cities. It should not be difficult for the Centre to convince these states to augment capacity as four of them, barring Delhi, are ruled by the BJP and its allies.
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh account for one-third of the total prison population. Creating additional facilities in these two states will have a major impact on overcrowding. Prisoners are released prematurely on Independence Day and Republic Day. The Supreme Court has also asked the states to release those who have undergone half of the imprisonment in cases involving a maximum punishment of seven years. But these measures do not really help ease the situation.
The main reason behind overcrowding is undertrial prisoners as they account for 77 per cent of the total occupancy. If we extrapolate the data of the Crime in India Report, 2021, and the Prison Statistics, we find that only seven per cent of all arrested are sent to jail.
Of the total 4,27,165 undertrials, 2,08,595 are lodged in various jails for committing crimes such as murder, attempt to murder, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rape, kidnapping and abduction, dowry deaths and assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, as on December 31, 2021.Another 94,160 undertrials are lodged for committing offences such as burglary, theft, extortion, arson, criminal breach of trust, cheating, dacoity and preparation and assembly for dacoity and robbery.
A total of 1,02,613 undertrials are lodged in jails for committing crimes under special and local laws, including Acts related to women, SCs/STs, arms/explosives, liquor and narcotics, foreigners and passports and Railways.
As many as 2,384 undertrials are lodged in various jails for committing offences against public tranquility and 1,276 for offences related to documents and property.Involvement in heinous and serious crimes by a large number of undertrials indicates that the scope of enlarging them on bail may not be so huge as to create the desirable impact on lessening overcrowding.
However, the timely release of undertrials under Section 436 (A) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) after undergoing half of the maximum imprisonment should lessen the burden on the prisons. If monitoring of this aspect is done more diligently, dramatic results can be expected in reducing the number of undertrials.
There are instances of undertrial prisoners languishing in jails because they cannot pay for the surety or the bail bond. The high courts and state and district legal aid authorities should step in to find a solution to this problem as the surety and bond amounts are not too large.
Arranging funds to strengthen the prison system has always been an issue. Since the return on investment in prisons cannot be quantified, there is a general diffidence in making an adequate allocation for them. The prisons received a severe setback when the UPA-II government at the Centre decided to discontinue the jail modernisation scheme in 2009. The scheme was started in 2002-03 for the construction of additional prisons and the repair, renovation and improvement of the existing ones. Around Rs 1,800 crore allocated under the scheme was utilised to build 119 new jails, 1,572 additional barracks in existing prisons and 8,568 staff quarters for the prison personnel.
The scheme was reintroduced in the revised Budget for 2021-22 and Rs 400 crore have been allocated in the budget for 2022-23. Instead of distributing funds for various components of the scheme, it may be better to focus on creating new infrastructure to accommodate the ever-rising number of prisoners.No single wing of this system can be blamed for this abject situation. Faster trials, liberal bail provisions, amendments in Acts to make offences compoundable and scrupulous adherence to Section 41(A) of the CrPC by all components of the criminal justice system alone will alleviate the problem.
