Visit prisons, interview inmates, gauge prison conditions: MP High Court to CJMs, DLSA

Prison Conditions Image Courtesy:livelaw.in

The Madhya Pradesh High Court seeks to know whether prisons in the state are well equipped in terms of infrastructure and facilities including healthcare and food for its inmates. The bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla has directed a member of each of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of the concerned district to make surprise visits to the prisons within next 6 weeks and gather this information. They are to also interview prisoners in order to gauge the on-ground situation in prisons.

While the court was given plenty of suggestions by the amicus curiae in this matter, based on data collected by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the court deemed it necessary that before it passes specific directions in this regard, the real situation in prisons is brought to light. This focus on prison conditions and the facilities available to inmates came to the forefront due to the second wave of Covid-19 which stood to affect the overcrowded prisons in the state. Senior counsel CU Singh informed the court that as on March 31, 2021 as against the total capacity of 28,675 prisoners, there were 32,263 under-trial prisoners and 17,311 convicts, totaling to 49,763 prisoners, lodged in the different jails of the state; which meant that the prisons were overcrowded by 174%.

Amicus curiae suggestions

During the hearings, amicus curiae Sankalp Kochar brought to the court’s attention the deplorable condition of prisons and suggested reforms. More such suggestions came from senior advocate CU Singh appearing for a petitioner as well as from advocate Ajay Gupta appearing for an intervenor.

Kochar pointed out that there are no jails for women in the state, there are also no borstal schools for rehabilitation of young offenders between the ages of 18-21, there are no psychologists in the prisons for the mental health of prisoners, there is no mental health review board as mandated by Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 to receive quarterly reports from medical officers in prisons. He also pointed out that Madhya Pradesh has not provided financial assistance to prisoners on release and not even a single convict has been rehabilitated. He also stated that the state had the 2nd highest number of natural deaths of prisoners which meant there was a need for improving living conditions in the prisons by focusing on prevention of disease.

The suggestions include:

Mental Health Review Boards should be set up in the state,
Green Jail model of Narsinghpur should be emulated everywhere in the state,
All eleven Central Jails of the State should endeavour to get ISO 9001:2015 certification,
Special provisions/facilities should be made for disabled inmates and jail staff should be sensitised about their rights,
Separate protocol, treatment and accommodation should be provided for mentally disabled inmates as there are 752 mentally ill inmates across all prisons in the state,
United Nation Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners (The Nelson Mandela Rules) should be strictly implemented,
The Telangana model of training inmates in vocational trades should be followed since despite having 2nd highest number of inmates the gross value of sales proceeds from jail products is quite low at Rs. 2.77 crores.
The Welfare Board for Prisons, which is dysfunctional in the State, should be re-activated to provide financial assistance to released convicts,
A mechanism should be introduced for speedy resolution of pending complaints of the prisoners before the National Human Rights Commission and the State Human Rights Commission
All the unfilled vacancies of different levels/categories in the jails should be filled so as to optimize the efficiency of jail staff especially posts of Residential Medical Officers, Welfare Officers and Para Medical Staff
Amendment of parole rules to get rid of loopholes
Adequate number of toilets and bathrooms should be constructed in the prisons keeping in view the Rule 17 of the Standard Minimum Rules. One unit of the toilet fitted with flush typed latrine and cubical for bathing should be provided for every batch of 10 prisoners, with adequate water and proper arrangement to secure privacy of both by affixation of gates
Practice of preparing food for 1,000-2,000 inmates at one go should be discontinued and as recommended in Mulla Committee Report each kitchen should cater to maximum 200 prisoners. Automated roti makers should be procured to ensure supply of healthy and properly cooked rotis to the prisoners. One sweet item should be provided to the prisoners once in a week, preferably on every Sunday during lunch hours
In order to avoid spread of water-borne diseases, water filtering plants should be setup
Separate dental care unit, basic diagnostic facilities, functional ambulance should be provided
Newspapers, magazines, novels should be procured, movies should be shown once in a fortnight
Regular sports and gaming activities should be promoted in jails
Training in vocational trades should be provided
Use of video conferencing facility should be made effectively functional in all Central Jails
The Collectors of each district should be directed to constitute a Board of Visitors, who should periodically visit the jails. District Collectors/Additional District Collectors and Sessions Judges/Chief Judicial Magistrates of each district should periodically visit the jails and submit their report/notes
Open jails should be set up

The court’s directions

The court refused to pass any specific directions with regards to the suggestions but at the same time found the state’s response to these suggestions to be inadequate and unsatisfactory. The court thus sought a specific-considered and detailed response to each of the suggestions from the state. Also, before issuing specific directions, the court has deemed it appropriate to comprehend the magnitude of the problem on the basis of actual position obtained in different prisons by having them physically inspected.

The court thus directed the Member Secretary, District Legal Services Authority accompanied by Chief Judicial Magistrate of each district to make surprise inspection of all the Central Jails and District Jails falling in their jurisdiction, on any day within next six weeks, and privately interview as many prisoners as they may consider necessary and submit their report to the court. The court has sought to know through these reports in detail about sanitation, food, health care, recreational activities, educational activities, vocational activities, infrastructure and welfare. The court has given questions in detail for each of these topics to be covered during this visit.

The court has directed that the copy of the order be forwarded to Member Secretary, MP State Legal Services Authority and Director General of Prisons for compliance.

The case will next be heard on December 7.

On September 3, bench of Justices Sheel Nagu and Rajeev Kumar Shrivastava while dealing with the request of a convict to extend his suspension of sentence so that he can get good medical care for his ailments, directed the state government to establish Primary Health Centres (PHC) in prison premises to maintain the health of prisoners. The court had observed that primary healthcare facilities are not available in jail dispensaries and also secured transportation to hospitals outside jail premises is not available.

The complete order may be read here: