Prison Statistics India Report 2019-2020 | UPSC
HEADLINES:
Indian jails overcrowded, understaffed, reveals NCRB report.
WHY IN NEWS:
Most prisoners are undertrials, over 70% of them haven’t studied till Class 10
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 2 : 3 : Prison Reforms : Report : NCRB
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS do not go with numbers , compare state wise and remember top three states if you can .
For MAINS try to remember this report with a story line . This is a important report and will help you on a longer run . Let us dive in !
ISSUE:
PRISON STATISTICS INDIA REPORT
- Prison Statistics India is the latest in the series of annual statistical reports being brought out by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
- The data for the report is collected from Prison Headquarters of all States / UTs. Arunachal Pradesh did not have any jail prior to 2009.
- The first edition of the report pertains to the year 1995 and the latest edition of the report pertains to the year 2019.
PRISON ADMINISTRATION
- Prison administration is an important component of criminal justice system.
- Earlier system of prison with punitive attitude where in inmates were forcibly confined and deprived a variety of freedom.
- Today it is now treated as correction or improvement facility which itself indicates that there is more emphasis on reformation of prisoners than to punish them.
TYPES OF PRISON
- Prisons exist at three levels such as Taluk level, District level and Zonal/Range level.
- Jails at these levels are called as Sub Jail, District Jail and Central Jail respectively.
- Generally, capacity in terms of infrastructure, available prison staffs & powers vested in them are progressively better from Sub jail to Central Jail.
REPORT ANALYSIS
SCOPE
The report contains information on
- Prisons
- Prisoners and
- Prison infrastructure
Age-group-wise and sex-wise details of prison inmates are available in the report.
KEY FACTS
- The total number of prisons at national level has increased from 1,339 in 2018 to 1,350 in 2019, having increased by 0.82%.
- The highest number of jails was reported in Rajasthan (144) followed by Tamil Nadu (141), Madhya Pradesh (131).
- Delhi has reported the highest number of Central jails (14) in the country.
- Uttar Pradesh has reported the highest number of District jails (62).
- Tamil Nadu has reported highest number of Sub-jails (96).
OCCUAPANCY RATES
SOURCES : NCRB
- This number did reduce by a small margin, compared to data from 2001, that showed 15.2 per cent and 13.2 per cent of the total convicts and under-trials respectively were Adivasis.
- This disproportionate percentage of Adivasis reported to be in prison, however, was just the tip of the iceberg.
CONVICTION
SOURCES : NCRB
- A total of 400 prisoners, who had been sentenced for Capital Punishment, were lodged in various jails of the country as on 31 st December, 2019.
- Among the 1,44,125 convicted prisoners, the number of prisoners who were sentenced to Life Imprisonment were 77,158 accounting for 53.54% of total convicts.
UNDERTRIALS
SOURCES : NCRB
- Sixty seven percent of the people in Indian jails are undertrials – those detained in prisons during trial, investigation or inquiry but not convicted of any crime in a court of law.
- The share of the prison population awaiting trial or sentencing in India is extremely high .
- More than 25% of undertrial prisoners in 16 out of 36 states and union territories have been detained for more than one year in 2014.
- Jammu and Kashmir tops this list with 54%, followed by Goa (50%) and Gujarat (42%).
- UP leads in terms of sheer numbers (18,214).
OVERCROWDING
- According to the Prison Statistics India 2015 report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India’s prisons are overcrowded with an occupancy ratio of 14% more than the capacity.
- More than two-thirds of the inmates are undertrials.
- The prisons are overcrowded by 77.9% in Meghalaya, by 68.8% in Uttar Pradesh and by 39.8% in Madhya Pradesh.
- In absolute numbers, UP had the highest number of undertrials (62,669), followed by Bihar (23,424) and Maharashtra (21,667).
- In Bihar, 82% of prisoners were undertrials, the highest among states.
EXPENDITURE ON PRISONERS
EXPENDITURE ON PRISONERS
SOURCES : NCRB
- The total budget for the financial year 2019-20 for all prisons in the country was 6818.1 Crore.
- A total of 2060.96 Crore was spent on inmates during FY 2019-20.
- This is almost 34.59% of total annual expenditure of all prisons for FY 2019-20.
EDUCATION PROFILE OF PRISONERS
EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF PRISONERS
SOURCES : NCRB
- Among the 4,78,600 prisoners, literacy profile of 1,98,872 (4 prisoners was Below Class X, 1,03,036 (21.5%) prisoners were Class X & above but below Graduation.
- 30,201 (6.3%) prisoners were having a Degree.
- A total of 1,32,729 (27.7%) prisoners were Illiterate.
WOMEN PRISONERS WITH CHILDREN
- There were 1,543 women prisoners with 1,779 children as on 31st December, 2019.
- 325 convicted prisoners who were accompanied by 363 children.
STAFF CRUNCH
- While 33% of the total requirement of prison officials still lies vacant, almost 36% of vacancy for supervising officers is still unfulfilled.
- Delhi’s Tihar jail ranks third in terms of a severe staff crunch.
- The manpower recruited inside this prison is almost 50% short of its actual requirement.
- In the absence of adequate prison staff, overcrowding of prisons leads to rampant violence and other criminal activities inside the jails.
IASbhai WINDUP:
ADIVASIS DEPRIVATION
- Most of these protracted trials ended in acquittals, posing a serious question on the legality and legitimacy of the deprivation of personal liberty of Adivasi under-trials.
- In the rare event of a case being sent for prosecution to the courts.
- Most forest offences went directly to a chapter of the Criminal Procedure Code called the ‘summary trial’, where ordinary procedural protections were done away with.
- Adivasis hence find it more difficult than others to obtain competent legal representation .
- Thus they are also viewed as flight risks by the judiciary, making bail more difficult.
India had not ratified the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 — concerning indigenous peoples and tribal peoples — that formed a large body of international law instruments that can protect Adivasis within the Indian judicial system.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | Prison Statistics India Report 2019-2020 | UPSC
DISCOVER MORE : GS-2
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