Undertrials form 2/3rds of prisoners

It is not just our buses and trains that are overcrowded, our prisons are also overcrowded according to the prison statistics of the NCRB. Our prisons nationally have an occupancy ratio of 118.4%, 18% more than the capacity of the prison. And not surprisingly, 2/3rd of the inmates are undertrials, thanks to the slow pace of our judicial process.

There are 1,391 jails in the country. 80% of the capacity is in the central & district jails. They are also the ones that are overcrowded beyond capacity. All the other jails have an occupancy ratio of less than 100%. Women jails are present in only 12 of the 35 States/UTs. Only 10 states have Borstal schools. Only 16 states have Open jails and only 12 states have Special Jails.

In terms of occupancy ratio, Chhattisgarh tops the list with an occupancy ratio of 261. This could be because of Maoist problem in the state. Second in the list are UTs (including Delhi) with an occupancy ratio that is 74% more than the capacity. It is also interesting to note that most of these states have high crime rates and hence the overcrowding. In the bottom 10, big states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar & Tamil Nadu find a place. Only 11 states have an occupancy ratio less than 100%, that is to say that the number of inmates is less than the capacity.

Number of male Vs female inmates

At the national level, about 4.4% of all the inmates are female. The highest percentage of female inmates is 7.6% in Mizoram followed by Andhra Pradesh (6.3%), West Bengal (6.1%) & Maharashtra (5.7%). Only 8 states have more than 5% female inmates. Tripura, Kerala, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have less than 3% female inmates.

Number of undertrials

One major cause for the overcrowding is the large number of undertrials in prisons. This is a sad reflection of the pace of our judicial system that is painstakingly slow. More than 2/3rdof all the prison mates are undertrials. More than 20% of these undertrials are in the prison for a period of more than a year. The state trends are also interesting. Percentage of undertrials in 15 states is more than the national average.

This percentage is more than 70% in 12 states. Topping the percentage of undertrials is Meghalaya with 91.2% followed by Arunachal Pradesh (88%), Manipur (87.2%), Bihar (85.6%) and Jammu & Kashmir (83.3%). Four of the top 10 states are from the North East. It could well be a pointer to large number of arrests & detentions in the North East and also Jammu & Kashmir. It is a fair reflection of the performance of the lower judiciary in these states.

Age group of inmates

42% of the total inmates in prisons are less than 30 years old. A total of 87% of the inmates are less than 50 years old while the remaining 13% are more than 50 years old. (https://factly.in)

By Rakesh Dubbudu