Jail break: Many escapees still at large

The attempt of two under trials to escape from the high security Tihar Jail recently raised quite a few eyebrows. While one of them was caught, the other escaped. But this is not the first time that inmates tried such escapades. Data available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) indicates that a total of 5879 inmates escaped between 2004 -2013. Out of this, only 1847 were re-arrested which is a mere 31% of the total. The rest 69% are still at large.

The Trend

On an average, 587 inmates escaped from prisons in the 10-year period from 2004 to 2013. Of these, the highest number escaped in the year 2007 (913) followed by 2005 (635). The lowest number of escapees was in 2013 (417). The number of escaped was more than 600 in three different years (2005, 2007 & 2008).

Modes

The inmates escape either from inside the prison, outside the prison or from police custody. The highest number of escapes usually happens from police custody, while taking the under trials to courts. Between 2004 & 2013, while 1661 inmates escaped from inside the prison, only 759 escaped from outside the prison. A total 3459 escaped from police custody during this period. Percentage of inmates escaped from police custody is close to 59% of the total number of escapees.

Re-arrests

Out of the 5879 escapees, only 1847 escapees were re-arrested. This is about 31% of the total number of escapees. 69% of the total escapees are still at large. Close to 39% of the total escapees were re-arrested in both 2006 and 2012. This is the highest for any year. The lowest percentage of re-arrests was made in 2007 (22%).

This could be because of the high number of escapees that year. The percentage of re-arrests was less than 30% in three different years (2004, 2006 & 2009). The writer has been working on issues related to Right to Information (RTI) for a decade. He is a Data/Information enthusiast & passionate about Governance/Policy issues.

By:Rakesh Dubbudu