Mass jailing of undertrials must end

News: Overcrowded prisons have felt the devastating impact and led to a humanitarian crisis.

What is the condition in jail during pandemic timings?

It has been seen jail has been overcrowded. Prisons instituted their own lockdown rules by quarantining “fresh” admissions, creating quarantine zones, suspending jail manuals, prohibiting visitors, etc. Even after this, the struggle has been there to stop the spread of the virus and many have died.

Prisons have not completed vaccination programmes and conditions have worsened as occupancy rates increase. Court visits are suspended. Lawyers cannot visit their clients in person. Prison visits have stopped, even if families and visitors are vaccinated and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.

What are the reasons for the overcrowding of jails?

According to the experts, the main reason behind that is the mass imprisonment of pre-trial prisoners. There is a 31.8% increase in the confinement of under trial prisoners and a 40.1% increase in imprisonment of detenues from 2015 to 2020. The prison statistics of 2020 show that more than 70% of under trial prisoners are from marginalized classes, castes, religions, and genders.

What does the data show about jail conditions? 

The 2020 Prison Statistics report reveals that the release of convicts has declined by 41.2 %, and of undertrials has declined by 19.6 % in 2020 as compared to 2019. Also, the number of undertrial prisoners increased by 11.7 %, and the number of detenues increased by 11.4 % in 2020.

Violation of law: The pandemic saw the creation of new dockets which were mainly related to violations of “lockdown law” under section 188 of the IPC.  In 2019, there were 29,469 cases registered under this section. In 2020, this increased to a staggering 6,12,179 cases. Other laws were also used, including local laws, leading to 16,43,690 more cases being registered in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Custodial deaths: It has increased by 7% in 2020. There is an increase in unnatural deaths, which include suicides, accidents, and murders in prisons, by 18.1%. There is no information on why 56 inmates died in 2020. These figures prove that the lockdown rules in prisons increase custodial violence and disease.

What did the Supreme Court do to control the situation?

In 2020, SC issued directions to set up high-powered committees (HPCs) in each state to decongest prisons, considering the covid situation. According to the court, the state is must consider the health and right to life of both the prison inmates and the police personnel working”. However, most HPCs did not adopt this classification and nor were they gender-sensitive.

For example, Delhi HPC directed that pregnant undertrials or mothers with children will be released on interim bail for three months. But, the HPC did not talk about the period of the trimester. The Delhi HPC did not honor the UN’s Bangkok Rules which state that “non-custodial means should be preferred for pregnant women during the pre-trial phase”.

What should be the way forward?

– Both governments and courts should adopt a public health and gender-sensitive approach.

– Bureaucratic approach of the HPCs should be reviewed.

Source: This post is based on the article “Mass jailing of undertrials must end” published in the Indian Express on 14th February 2022.