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The number of undertrial prisoners still considerably overshadows the number of convicts in Indian jails. In 2019 too, 69.05% undertrials were imprisoned while 30.11% were convicts and 0.67% were detenus reveals the 25th edition of the Prison statistics in India report released by the NCRB
Prisons
The prisons in India have always been over crowded, with the increasing number of under trials housed there. There has been an increase in number of prisons in one year i.e. from 1,339 prisons in 2018 to 1,350 prisons in 2019, India has built 11 prisons in that year. Yet, the occupancy rate keeps piling up. The occupancy rate is 118.5% in 2019 which was at 117.6% in 2018. In India’s 1,350 prisons, there are currently 4.7 lakh prisoners. Delhi has reported the highest occupancy rate (174.9%) followed by Uttar Pradesh (167.9%) and Uttarakhand (159.0%).
The 25th edition of the Prison Statistics in India report, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that provides data on prisons, prisoners and prison infrastructure was released this week. The report contains data compiled from prison Head-quarters in each state, except West Bengal, from where they have not been given any data since 2017.
Rajasthan has the highest number of prisons at 144 followed by Tamil Nadu (141), Madhya Pradesh (131), Andhra Pradesh (106), Karnataka (104) and Odisha (91).
Central Jails have the highest capacity of inmates (1,77,618) followed by the District Jails (capacity of 1,58,986 inmates) and the Sub Jails (capacity of 45,071 inmates)
Prisoners
The number of undertrial prisoners still considerably overshadows the number of convicts in jails. In 2019, 69.05% undertrials were imprisoned while 30.11% were convicts and 0.67% were detenus.
As compared to 2018, there has been a 3.32% increase in number of convicts in 2019 and a 2.15% increase in number of undertrials. Uttar Pradesh has reported the maximum number of undertrials (22.2%, 73,418 undertrials) in the country followed by Bihar (9.5%, 31,275 undertrials) and Maharashtra (8.3%, 27,557 undertrials).
Notably, the number of detenus has seen the highest jump from 2018 data. There has been an increase by 35.19% in number of detenus lodged in jails. Tamil Nadu has reported the maximum number of detenus (38.5%, 1,240) in the country followed by Gujarat (21.7%, 698) and Jammu & Kashmir (12.5%, 404).
A total of 400 prisoners have been sentenced to capital punishment, out of which 121 prisoners have been sentenced in 2019 alone. Further, among 1,44,125 convicts, 53.54% (77,158) have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Among all undertrials, 74.08% (2,44,841) have been confined for up to 1 year. There are, however, undertrials who have spent more time in prison 13.35% (44,135) have been confined for 1-2 years while 6.79% (22,451) have been confined for 2-3 years and 4.25% (14,049) have been in prison for 3-5 years.
Deaths
The total number of deaths has decreased only marginally, by 3.79%, compared to 2018. There were 1,845 deaths that took place in 2018 compared to 1,775 deaths in 2019. However, the number of un-natural deaths have increased by 10.74% from 149 in 2018 to 165 in 2019.
Among the 165 un-natural deaths of inmates, 116 inmates have committed suicide, 20 inmates died in accidents, 10 inmates were murdered by inmates and 1 inmate died due to assault by outside elements during 2019. For a total of 66 inmate deaths, cause of the death is not yet known.
The complete report may be read here.
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