India Justice Report 2020: 67% of total prisoners are jailed without conviction

According to India Justice Report 2020, unnecessary arrests, conservative approaches to granting bail, uncertain access to legal aid, delays at trial, as well as the inefficacy of monitoring mechanisms such as Under Trial Review Committees continue to contribute to overcrowding of prisons.

Hyderabad: When the coronavirus pandemic hit the country last year, the government advised the citizens to follow the social distancing norms strictly in order to curb the spread of the deadly virus. Ironically, this could not be followed in the judicial system as the Indian Justice Report 2020 claimed that nearly 55 prisoners are sharing a single room, making the social distancing a toss.

The Supreme Court in its order on March 23, directed all states and Union Territories to constitute high-level committees to consider releasing on parole or interim bail prisoners and undertrials for offences entailing up to 7-year jail term to decongest prisons in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

It said overcrowding of prisons is a matter of serious concern, particularly in the present context of coronavirus (COVID 19).

Number of prisons has come down from 1,412 to 1,350

While the overall prison population has grown to 4,78,600 (Pre-Sentence Investigation report- PSI 2019) from 4,33,003 (PSI 2016) the number of prisons has come down from 1,412 to 1,350. Several unsustainable sub-jails have been closed down, and their populations must now necessarily be assimilated into the nearest district or central prisons. It is no surprise then that overcrowding is at 19 per cent, a jump of 5 percentage points from 2016 figures.

What leads overpopulation in jails?

According to the reports, unnecessary arrests, conservative approaches to granting bail, uncertain access to legal aid, delays at trial, as well as the inefficacy of monitoring mechanisms such as Under Trial Review Committees continue to contribute to overcrowding.

The most overcrowded prisons are in Delhi (175 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (168 per cent), and Uttarakhand (159 per cent).

At the time of the pandemic, where digitalisation plays a major role in fixing an ample number of problems like video calls to get in touch with the loved ones, the reports suggest that as many as sixteen states/ UTs have less than 90 per cent of video-conferencing facilities.

Andhra spends highest of Rs 2 lakhs for over 7,500 prisoners annually

Nationally, the average spend per prisoner has, however, gone up by nearly 45 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, at Rs 2,00,000 for over 7,500 inmates in 106 prisons records the highest annual spend.

In 2019-20, seventeen states/ UTs spent below Rs 35,000 annually, or less than Rs 100 a day per person. But the lowest spends per prisoner have gone down further: in 2016-17 Rajasthan at Rs 14,700 spent the least per inmate but, currently, at Rs 11,000 Meghalaya spends the least per inmate.

India Justice Report

The second edition of the India Justice Report is based on publicly available data of different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery -- police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.

The ranking is an initiative of Tata Trust in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.