New Delhi: It is now not just buses and trains that are overcrowded, jails of the country are also overcrowded.
And most of the Northeastern states headed by Meghalaya top the list of states with overcrowded jails. And not surprisingly, two-third of the inmates is undertrials, thanks to the slow pace of the country’s judicial process.
Topping the percentage of undertrials is Meghalaya with 91.2% followed by Arunachal Pradesh (88%), Manipur (87.2%), Bihar (85.6%) and Jammu & Kashmir (83.3%). Four of the top 10 states are from the North East, the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report said.
Of the total inmates in prisons, women inmates constitute just 4.4% with Mizoram topping list with 7.6% followed by Andhra Pradesh (6.3%), West Bengal (6.1%) & Maharashtra (5.7%). Tripura, Kerala, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have less than 3% female inmates, the report said
The prisons nationally have an occupancy ratio of 118.4%, 18% more than their capacity.
There are 1,391 jails in the country. 80% of the capacity is in the central & district jails. They are also the ones that are overcrowded beyond capacity. All the other jails have an occupancy ratio of less than 100%. Women jails are present in only 12 of the 35 States/UTs. Only 16 states have Open jails and 12 more have Special Jails.
In terms of occupancy ratio, Chhattisgarh tops the list with an occupancy ratio of 261 possibly because of Maoist problem in the state. Second in the list are UTs (including Delhi) with an occupancy ratio that is 74% more than the capacity.
It is also interesting to note that most of these states have high crime rates and hence the overcrowding. In the bottom 10, big states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar & Tamil Nadu find a place. Only 11 states have an occupancy ratio less than 100%, that is to say that the number of inmates is less than the capacity. An important aspect of prison administration is the population of inmates that the authorities have to handle in the prisons. One thing that comes out strikingly on the basis of available data is that the jails are over-crowded.
Data relating to the population of both male and female inmates are collected from the prison authorities in order to find the relationship in terms of occupancy/overcrowding between the capacity available in prisons and the actual number of prison inmates.
The occupancy in any jail changes on daily basis due to addition of new prisoners and release of old ones, nevertheless, an estimate of population of inmates at the end of the year serves as a good indicator to determine the occupancy rate.
