Why in News?
- Recently, the Prime Minister proposed prison reforms to enhance jail management and recommended repealing obsolete criminal laws, at the 57th All-India Conference of Director Generals/ Inspector Generals of Police, organised by the Intelligence Bureau.
Key Highlights of the Prime Minister’s Address-
- The PM emphasised on the importance of National Data Governance Framework (NDGF) for the smoothing of data exchange, across agencies.
- Also, building the police forces more sensitive and training them in emerging technologies.
- He talked about leveraging technological solutions such as biometrics etc., and the need to further reinforce traditional policing mechanisms like foot patrols.
- He also emphasised on improved cooperation between the State Police and Central Agencies to leverage capabilities and share best practices replicating the model of the DGsP/IGsP Conference at the State/district levels, for discussing emerging challenges and evolving best practices among their teams.
Various Issues Related to Prison in India-
- Following are serious issues with the jail system that the Supreme Court (SC) cited in the Ramamurthy v. State of Karnataka judgement.
- Overcrowding- India has many overcrowded jails, with institutions built to house a fixed number of inmates being crammed to the jails.
- The prisoners’ resources are impacted by the overcrowding. It primarily has to do with the many prisoner classes.
- For example, it was claimed in 2020 that more than 15,000 offenders were housed in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, which has a capacity of around 7,000 inmates.
- Under-trials- Indians make up a disproportionately large portion of those in prison awaiting sentencing.
- Further, as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)-Jail Statistics India, trial prisoners make up 67.2% of the entire prison population in India, which leads to uncommon circumstances where under-trials serve longer sentences than they would have if a trial had taken place.
- For example, 67 percent of offenders in India, 20% of criminals in the United States, and 11% of criminals in the United Kingdom are awaiting trial.
- Pendency of Cases- As per records from 2022, at present there are over 4.7 billion cases pending in Indian courts at all levels of the legal system.
- Shortage of staff- The prison reforms are understaffed and underfunded and this causes violence, a lack of security, and other criminal activity inside jails since there is inadequate oversight.
- Condition of women prisoners- Women prisoners face a number of difficulties, involving inadequate dietary intake, poor sanitation and hygiene, and many instances of custodial rape in which victims are pressured to remain silent. In 2018, there were 19,242 women incarcerated in Indian prisons.
- Instances of torture and sexual abuse- Prisoners are occasionally subjected to violent quarrels, indignable bodily pain, and cruel psychological torment.
- Custodial violence is the “worst type of excesses by public personnel assigned with the task of law enforcement,” as per the National Human Rights Commission. There were 6,623 inmates with mental diseases in prison as of 2018.
- Prison inmates living with infectious diseases- According to case studies done at many jails in India, offenders were exposed to infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis while incarcerated, endangering the general public.
- Colonial Nature and Obsolete Laws- The Indian criminal justice system was formed with the intention of governing the country during British colonial rule, both in terms of substance and procedure.
- Given this, it is questionable if certain rules from the 19th century still apply in the modern days.
Committees on Prison Reforms-
- All India Committee on Prison Reforms Report (Mulla Committee).
- Justice Amitava Roy Committee Prison reform.
- The Krishna Iyer Committee on Prison Reforms.
- The status of prisons in India remains gloomy on multiple counts. The Supreme Court (SC) has pronounced some progressive Judgments on the issue of rights of Prisoners. Several Committees have provided some effective recommendations to undertake prison reforms. Though, the lack of political will by Union and State Governments has delayed the process.
- While Judiciary can also a play a role in decreasing the number of under-trials, broad prison reforms have to be undertaken by the Governments. The trend of increasing proportion of under-trials and overcrowding of prisons indicate that the process of reforms can no longer be delayed.