{"id":220929,"date":"2023-01-03T20:54:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T15:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=220929"},"modified":"2023-01-03T20:54:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T15:24:56","slug":"towards-reducing-indias-prison-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/towards-reducing-indias-prison-footprint\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards reducing India\u2019s prison footprint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cTowards reducing India\u2019s prison footprint\u201d published in <\/strong>The Hindu<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a03rd<\/sup> January 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>measures needed to prevent overcrowding of prisons<\/p>\n

News: <\/strong>Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi in June last year directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to allocate land to Delhi\u2019s prison department to construct a district prison complex in Narela to prevent overcrowding.<\/p>\n

How is the district prison complex in Delhi being built up?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The prison is to be constructed in two phases, the first for high-risk offenders and the second for undertrials.<\/p>\n

In phase 1, a high-security jail is to be built in the complex with a capacity to lodge 250 high-risk prisoners.<\/p>\n

High walls are being constructed between cells<\/strong> to prevent prisoners from viewing others, and interacting with each other, as well as building office spaces between cells to facilitate surveillance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Delhi prison administration is creating solitary confinement<\/strong> which can have a severe harmful effect on prisoners\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n

Therefore, L-G\u2019s claim to decongest Delhi\u2019s prison complexes by setting up prisons in Narela is not appreciable and not a proper way of preventing overcrowding.<\/p>\n

What are the reasons behind overcrowding of prisons?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

One of the reasons behind it is that India has not done enough to truly prevent crime. Dalits and Adivasis<\/strong> are over-represented in Indian prisons.<\/p>\n

As per a report, social, systemic, legal, and political barriers are the reason behind this. Laws such as the Habitual Offenders Act and Beggary Laws allow the police to target Dalit and Adivasis for reported crimes.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, prisons in India are still governed by the colonial law Prisons Act, 1894<\/strong>. It treats prisoners as sub-par citizens, and provides for strict punishment rather than rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

What can be the way ahead?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

President Murmu said<\/strong> that rather than building more prisons to prevent overcrowding we must adopt measures like releasing unwell or old inmates, reducing penalties, allowing bail at affordable costs, etc<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

India is a progressing country, so its approach to crime should be preventive rather than reactive. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore, the L-G should work with the Delhi government to channel public funds towards public goods such as housing, education, and employment, so that crimes could be prevented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cTowards reducing India\u2019s prison footprint\u201d published in The Hindu\u00a0on\u00a03rd January 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Governance Relevance: measures needed to prevent overcrowding of prisons News: Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi in June last year directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to allocate land to Delhi\u2019s prison department to construct a… Continue reading Towards reducing India\u2019s prison footprint<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-220929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701876047},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=220929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}