Jails got more overcrowded last year, 8 in 10 inmates undertrials, report says

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About eight out of every 10 inmates in Indian prisons are awaiting trial, while the occupancy rate of the incarceration facilities spiked to 130 percent last year from 118 percent in 2020, according to a report.

The India Justice Report (IJR), which analysed data furnished by the Prisons Statistics Report, also noted that the number of people arrested in 2021 stood at 1.47 crore – a 7.7 lakh increase from a year ago.

The increased number of arrests added to overcrowding in prisons at a time when prisons were sought to be decongested in line with the Supreme Court's orders at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The apex court had taken up the issue of overcrowding in prisons suo moto when the global pandemic hit. The court, passed a slew of directions asking concerned authorities to take steps to decongest the jails to prevent spread of COVID-19 among prison inmates.

However, the second year of the pandemic saw increased number of arrests as well as occupancy in prisons.

Marginalised large chunk

While nearly 77 percent of total prisoners were undertrials, the report showed a large chunk of prisoners belong to marginalised communities, it added. "25.2 percent (of the inmates) are illiterate and there is a disproportionate number of Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis among the inmates," IJR said.

Among the undertrial prisoners, nearly 49 percent belong to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, or the Muslim community, IJR’s analysis shows. The proportion for these communities stands at 51.7 percent among the convicted prisoners.

Mixed picture on medical, video-conferencing access

The report also highlighted progress on access to medical and video-conferencing (VC) facilities.

With courts pivoting to VC mode during the pandemic to ensure continued access to justice, 2021 saw 84 percent prisons equipped with VC facilities as opposed to 69 percent the year before.

Access to medical facilities for the inmates also improved with 2021 recording higher number of visits for medical assistance for the inmates. However, "the chronic unaddressed dearth of qualified doctors has become more acute with vacancies increasing sharply from 34 percent (December 2020) to 48.2 percent (December 2021)," the report says, throwing light on the declining availability of qualified doctors in prisons.

The overall vacancy among medical staff, including pharmacists, lab technicians, and compounders, among others, also rose sharply to 40.5 percent in 2021 from 32.7 percent the year before.

Overall vacancies in prison correctional staff saw a nominally better situation with the vacancy rate coming down to 36.3 percent in 2021 from 40 percent vacancies at the end of 2020.

The IJR was prepared by a collective of organisations namely Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS-Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.

In IJR’s statement, its chief editor Maja Daruwala says, “Given the intention of governments to move strongly in the direction of rehabilitation there will have to be much greater investment in infrastructure, human resources and their training as well as to developing prison industry and skill building, and the problem of overcrowding has to be sorted out as a priority.”