{"id":216501,"date":"2022-11-30T11:09:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T05:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?page_id=216501"},"modified":"2022-12-03T09:29:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T03:59:28","slug":"answered-what-are-the-reasons-behind-the-overcrowding-of-prisons-in-india-state-the-measures-that-are-required-to-handle-the-overcrowding","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-what-are-the-reasons-behind-the-overcrowding-of-prisons-in-india-state-the-measures-that-are-required-to-handle-the-overcrowding\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] What are the reasons behind the overcrowding of prisons in India? State the measures that are required to handle the overcrowding."},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"616\"><strong>Introduction:\u00a0<\/strong>Contextual introduction.<br \/>\n<strong>Body:\u00a0<\/strong>Explain the reasons behind the overcrowding of prisons in India. Also write some measures that are required to handle the overcrowding.<strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: Write a way forward.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>According to the <strong>National Crime Records Bureau\u2019s reports<\/strong> the capacity of prisons has increased from some 3.32 lakh to 4.25 lakh in the last decade, which is a 27% increase while the number of prisoners has increased from 3.7 lakh to 5.54 lakh in the same period, by 48%. This imbalance has caused the occupancy rate to surge from 112% to 130% in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reasons behind the overcrowding of prisons in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The main reason behind overcrowding is <strong>undertrial prisoners<\/strong> as they account for 77 percent of the total occupancy. According to the <strong>Prison Statistics India 2021<\/strong>, between 2016-2021, the number of convicts in jails has decreased by 9.5 per cent whereas the number of undertrial inmates has increased by 45.8 per cent.<\/li>\n<li>The pace of <strong>creating new infrastructure<\/strong> is sluggish. As the number of prisoners grows and no additional space for their accommodation is provided, overcrowding in prisons occurs.<\/li>\n<li>There is the <strong>rise<\/strong> in the number of people held under<strong> preventive detention<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Measures:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fair social policies and crime prevention:<\/strong> Taking action against poverty and social marginalization is key to preventing crime and violence and, in turn, reducing prison overcrowding.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reviewing and re-categorizing offences:<\/strong> It would give the courts the possibility of imposing non-custodial sanctions and measures or shorter prison terms for a larger number of offences. E.g. Imprisonment of children as a measure of last resort<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system:<\/strong> Procedural laws may be simplified to allow courts to spend less time on processing minor cases and freeing up time to process serious and complicated cases. e.g. computer-based case tracking systems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alternatives to imprisonment:<\/strong> Traditional alternatives, such as <strong>fines<\/strong>, <strong>community service orders<\/strong>; <strong>Suspended sentences<\/strong> (used in Germany).<\/li>\n<li>It may be better to focus on <strong>creating new infrastructure<\/strong> to accommodate the ever-rising number of prisoners.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Faster trials, liberal bail provisions<\/strong>, amendments in Acts to make offences compoundable also can solve the problem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Dickensian idea of building more prisons is not a sustainable solution. The judiciary, lawmakers, and government must act quickly to address this crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction:\u00a0Contextual introduction. Body:\u00a0Explain the reasons behind the overcrowding of prisons in India. Also write some measures that are required to handle the overcrowding.Conclusion: Write a way forward. According to the National Crime Records Bureau\u2019s reports the capacity of prisons has increased from some 3.32 lakh to 4.25 lakh in the last decade, which is a&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-what-are-the-reasons-behind-the-overcrowding-of-prisons-in-india-state-the-measures-that-are-required-to-handle-the-overcrowding\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">[Answered] What are the reasons behind the overcrowding of prisons in India? State the measures that are required to handle the overcrowding.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-216501","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/216501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}