Introduction

‘Prisons’/’persons detained therein’ is a State subject under Entry 4 of List II of the 7th Schedule to the Indian constitution. The administration and management of prisons are the duty of respective State Governments. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs provides regular guidance and advice to States and UTs on various issues concerning prisons and prison inmates.

Major Issues:

• The Supreme Court identified nine major problems that afflicted the prison system, such as overcrowding, delay of trials etc., in the Ramamurthy vs state of Karnataka case.

• Overcrowding: The 1412 jails of this country are crowded to more than 100% of their capacity; overcrowding affects the constrained prison resources and renders separation between different classes of prisoners difficult. 

• For example: 4.33 lakh prisoners were there against a capacity of 3.81 until December 2016. 

• Undertrials: The Indian share of the prison population waiting for the sentence is extremely high. 

• More than 67% of the prisoners are under trial; this generates sheer peculiarities, and sometimes undertrials spend more time in prison than the sentence that they would have got if a trial had taken place. 
• For example: Worldwide, 11% in the U.K and 20% in the US are undertrial criminals, while in India, it is 67%. 

• Shortage of staff: There is a genuine shortage of prison staff which leads to violence and other criminal activities inside jails in a lack of proper monitoring. 

• For example: The prison population and staff ratio in India is approximately 1:7, while in the UK, two prison officers are there for every three prisoners. 

• Condition of women prisoners: women prisoners face several challenges, including poor nutritional intake, poor sanitation and hygiene; some instances of custodial rape have also been reported where victims are threatened to keep their mouths shut. 

• In 2018 there were 19,242 women prisoners in Indian jails. 

• Instances of torture and sexual abuse: Sometimes prisoners are subjected to inhuman psychological and physical torture National Human Rights Commission has classified custodial violence as the “worst form of excesses by public servant entrusted with the duty of law enforcement”. 

• In 2018 6,623 persons suffering from mental illness were already in prisons. 

Prison inmates living with communicable diseases: Case studies held at different prisons in India have found that inmates in prison were living with communicable diseases like HIV and Tb, which put the major population at risk.