Undertrials comprise 75% of India’s prison population, most in a decade

What is the News?

National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) has released data regarding the undertrial prisoners in India.

What are the key findings related to undertrial prisoners in India?

The number of undertrials in prisons has increased sharply in 2020 even as the number of convicts fell.

This has resulted in undertrials accounting for over three-fourths of all those in jail, the highest proportion in at least a decade.

The highest increase in the proportion of undertrials was in Punjab, followed by Haryana.

Kerala had the lowest proportion of undertrials in 2020. But the proportion had increased marginally from 2019.

In 2020, there was also a significant decline in the number of undertrials released on bail compared to 2019. This could be due to lower access to the judiciary in 2020.

However, this pattern does not hold for many other states and large UTs where the undertrial population, as well as the overall prison population, saw an increase in 2020 indicating a denial of access to judicial services because of the pandemic.

Moreover, almost all states saw a significant decrease in the number of court visits as well as visits for medical care because of Covid restrictions. But in states like TN and Kerala, a lot of hearings were held in jails without having to transport the prisoners to courts.

Source: This post is based on the article “Undertrials comprise 75% of India’s prison population, most in a decade” published in TOI on 14th Feb 2022.