PRISON REFORMS - POLITY
News: PM Modi calls for prison reforms and repeal of obsolete laws
What's in the news?
● Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested prison reforms to improve jail management and recommended repealing obsolete criminal laws, at the annual police meet that concluded on January 22.
● Mr. Modi attended the 57th All-India Conference of Director Generals/ Inspector Generals of Police, organised by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on January 21 and 22.
Over-crowded Prisons:
● The story has put the spotlight back on the age-old problem of overcrowded prisons in India.
● Data show that in 2021, the latest year for which numbers are available, over 5.51 lakh people were lodged in prison, while the total capacity of Indian jails was about 4.25 lakh.
● This means that the occupancy rate of Indian prisons was 130%, a peak at least in the last decade.
Need for prison reforms:
1. Structural Constraints:
● Indian prisons face three long-standing structural constraints such as overcrowding, understaffing and underfunding.
● Overcrowding:
○ The capacity of the jails has increased from some 3.32 lakh to 4.25 lakh in the last decade, a 27% increase. However, the number of prisoners shot up from 3.7 lakh to 5.54 lakh in the same period, a 48% increase.
○ This imbalance has caused the occupancy rate to surge from 112% to 130% in the last decade. The pan-India problem of overflowing jails has worsened in the last decade.
● Understaffing:
○ While on the one hand, jails are overflowing, on the other, the vacancies for prison officers are alarmingly high in some States. Eg. In Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand over 60% of officer positions were vacant.
● Underfunding:
○ The money spent on each prison inmate varies widely across States. Eg. In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra, less than 20,000 was spent on cach prison inmate in 2019-20.
● The inevitable outcome is subhuman living conditions, poor hygiene, and violent clashes etc.
2. Huge undertrials:
● An undertrial is an unconvicted prisoner who is on trial in a court of law.
● Of the total prisoners, 70% are undertrials and among these undertrials 43% are women. In India, the number of undertrials is the highest in the world.
● At the end of 2019, more than one lakh people were lodged in Indian prisons as undertrials for more than a year.
● These are often people from disadvantaged backgrounds involved in minor and technical violations of the law who are incarcerated due to their inability to pay for bail and/or for good legal representation.
● Thus, hardened convicts as well as petty offenders like ticketless travellers could end up being imprisoned together for long periods in crumbling buildings with inadequate accommodation and sanitary facilities.
3. Ineffectiveness:
● The purpose of the criminal justice system was to protect the rights of the innocents and punish the guilty, but nowadays the system has become a tool of harassment of common people.
● The situation of undertrials is very grim if we look at the SC/ST and Muslims data. Near about 55% undertrials are SC, ST and Muslims.
● At the end of 2019, more than 90% of undertrials were not graduates and about 28% were illiterate.
4. Pendency of Cases:
● According to the Economic Survey 2018-19, there are about 5 crore cases pending in the judicial system, especially in district and subordinate courts, which leads to actualisation of the maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
5. No voting rights:
● Strangely enough, there is no bar on contesting elections while someone is in jail, whereas inmates are not allowed to vote in elections.
● Even the undertrials who have served more sentences than the prescribed sentence of the offence committed are not allowed to vote in the elections.
6. Human rights violation:
● The present overcrowded prisons violate basic human and fundamental rights of undertrials by not releasing them on time.
● Under trials lose four of their fundamental rights: the right to liberty, freedom of movement, freedom of occupation, and freedom of dignity.
● The number of unnatural deaths in jails increased from 115 in 2015 to 207 in 2019.
● The prisoners are made to live in inhuman conditions, even food served is not hygienic.
● Lack of ventilation, light, toilets make the situation even worse.
7. Prisons Act 1893:
● The act which governs the prisons is the legacy of British rule.
● Even after 75 years of independence we are using colonial law.
8. Issue of child development:
● Nearly 18000 children are living in jails only because their parents are in jails.
● There are no special provisions for these children whether it is education, food or playgrounds.
● There is less focus on the enculturation of such students.
9. International political consequences:
● Many countries refuse to extradite criminals to India on the issue of poor prison conditions.
● Even in Vijay Mallya’s extradition, the same excuses were put forward by the accused.
10. Investigation:
● Police are a front line of the criminal judiciary system, which played a vital role in the administration of justice.
● Corruption, huge workload and accountability of police is a major hurdle in speedy and transparent delivery of justice.
11. Lack of Political Will:
● Prison is a state subject. Thus, the political will is lacking to initiate the reforms as it would not garner any political mileage for the political parties.
12. Mental trauma:
● NHRC figures show that prisoners cut off from family and friends had a 50% more chance of committing suicide than those outside.
Recommendations of Various Committees:
1. Justice Mulla Committee 1983:
● All India cadre for prison staff.
● Bringing prison under the concurrent list.
● Government should form a National Policy on Prisons.
● Government to use alternatives to imprisonment such as community service, etc.
2. Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer committee on women prisoners 1987:
● Separate institutions with women employees alone for women offenders.
● Necessary provisions to restore the dignity of women even if convicted.
3. Committee under the chairmanship of Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) 2005:
● It used the reports of Justice Mulla Committee Report & Justice Krishna Iyer Committee and made several additional and new recommendations.
● It also drafted a National Policy on Prison Reforms and Correctional Administration, 2007.
● Draft National Policy on Prison Reforms and Correctional Administration:
○ Amending the constitution to include principles of prison management and treatment of undertrials under DPSP, and including prisons in the concurrent list.
○ Enactment of uniform and comprehensive law on matters related to prisons.
○ A department of Prisons and Correctional Services to be opened in each state and UT.
4. Justice Amaitava Roy panel on prison reforms:
In 2018, the Supreme Court appointed this panel. The committee submitted its report on February 2020 with major recommendations includes
● For overcrowding:
○ Special fast-track courts should be set up to deal with petty offences.
○ Lawyers-prisoners ratio: there should be at least one lawyer for every 30 prisoners.
○ Special fast-track courts should be set up to deal exclusively with petty offences which have been pending for more than five years.
● For Understaffing:
○ The Supreme Court should pass directions to start the recruitment process against vacancies
○ There should be use of video-conferencing for trials.
● For Prisoners:
○ Every new prisoner should be allowed a free phone call a day to his family members to see him through his first week in jail.
○ Alternative punishments should be explored.
○ Launching a National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms.
5. 268th Law Commission Report:
● The Commission recommended that those detained for offences that come with a punishment of up to seven years of imprisonment should be released on completing one-third of that period and for those charged with offences that attract a longer jail term after they complete half of that period.
● It also recommended that the police should avoid needless arrests, while magistrates should refrain from mechanical remand orders.
Reforms Needed:
1. Improve criminal justice system:
● Malimath Committee recommended to improve the criminal justice system to improve the conviction rate and to reduce the undertrials.
● Separate law & order functions from investigation as recommended by 2nd ARC.
2. All India Cadre for jails:
● The Justice Mulla Committee recommended creating an All India Service to bring uniformity in jail operations, to enforce accountability.
3. Undertrials:
● Justice Mulla Committee recommended to increase the Public Counsellors and use these counsellors especially for resolving cases of undertrials.
4. Sensitization:
● Government needs to reorient, recategorize the jail staff. The jail staff needs to be sensitized for empathy, compassion. This is necessary to reduce human rights violations.
5. Infrastructure:
● Improve living conditions, cleanliness, and hygiene.
● Install CCTV cameras to keep watch on illegal activities, harassment by jail staff.
● Increase budgetary support for infrastructure.
● Improve security of prisons.
6. Social and psychological improvements:
● Engaging prisoners in social and economic activities like agriculture, running radio channels, giving work for prisoners.
● Educational facilities for inmate's children
● Strengthening NHRC and SHRC for surveying jails, forming policies for jails etc.
7. Open jails:
● Open jails can be implemented for petty crimes. Under this system, prisoners are allowed to conduct their day-to-day activities like a normal person and these prisoners come back to the jail during the nights.
● Uttar Pradesh is implementing Open jails.
● Rajasthan has 31 open air camps.
● Rajasthan has even started open jail exclusively for women.
WAY FORWARD:
● There are many hurdles to cross for the prisons to be a reformative institution than a custodial home of torture.
● The progress is mainly hindered by factors such as resource allocation, deterrent functions of punishment and rehabilitation approach.
● Though there have been suggestions and recommendations by various committees, the major concern in India stands to be that of actual enforcement.
Indian jails dubbed as a university for grooming criminals structural changes are needed to address the key issues. Else, prisons will continue to be heaven for politically connected criminals and hell for socio-economically disadvantaged undertrials.