NOW OR NEVER

Deaths and Aweful Conditions in Jails

Joginder Singh, IPS (Retd.)
Former Director, CBI

Apart from the heavy pendency (the backlog as on February 27,2006 is Supreme Court 33,635, High Courts 3,41,040, Subordinate Courts 2,53,06,458), in the criminal justice system, the jail administration is in a mess. In fact, improving the jails, is the last priority of any government, because the undercurrent, of the thinking is, that jails are meant for the criminals, and so no improvement may be done or is necessary, to make life easy, for the depredators of the society. Only when some VIP or a top politician is sent to the jail, the government wakes up to the need to ensure at least human conditions for the prisoners. For instance, when a former Chief Minister of Bihar was sent to Beur Central Jail Patna, the building construction department, spent Rs 2.52 crore on improving the jail.

Whatever funds were sanctioned to provide human conditions, dried up as soon as the VIP prisoner, left the jail. This is something not exclusive to Bihar, but the same story is repeated all over the country, in a bigger or a smaller degree.

In a suo moto move, Delhi High Court has set up a five member Committee, in June 2007, to visit Tihar Jail and submit a report on the medical facilities available there, following the death of half dozen prisoners in one week. Of course, the jail authorities are blaming the deaths on extreme heat in Delhi, during the period in question. On an average, about 24 prisoners or 2 prisoners a month die every year. The real truth is, that there is not enough infrastructure, to cater to pressure of increasing prison population.

Tihar jail, in the National Capital has a capacity of 6,250 inmates. At present it houses some 13,750 prisoners. Naturally, when the infrastructure, whether of medical or living space or supervision, or medical facilities, is exposed to cater to the needs of the double, the conditions are likely to be even more worse than desirable.

If this can happen in the National Capital, in the full glare of the media, one can imagine, the conditions in the States. I happened to be sitting in a popular restaurant some time back. I could not help over hearing the conversation at the next table. It appeared that one of the well dressed and apparently well off person on the next table, was telling his friend his experiences in jail. He said, “I spent a full month in jail and I had the best of life there. I paid Rs. 1000 a day for staying in a separate air conditioned room.” This package, however did not include, the use of mobile phone, TV, DVD, meals of his choice and meeting people privately, for which he had to pay separately. A jailed citizen has to pay for each item separately, at almost astronomical rates. Jail is not a bad place, if you have money and can splurge it.
There are 90 doctors for the 13,750 inmates in Tihar, a down­ward curve from the 100: 7,000 doctor prisoner ratio in 1995. People are sentenced to undergo punishment for breaking the law, or are kept there as undertrial prisoners. Death in the course of serving a jail sentence is not part of the penalty.

As Bible says “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”, is the apt condition of Indian jails.

According to one report, the NHRC has taken up the cases of four men awaiting trial in Assam:
1. Khalilur Rehman has been in custody for 35 years, 2. Anil Kumar Burman for 33 years, and 3. Sonamani Deb for 32 years, while 4. Parbati Mallik has been detained in a psychiatric unit for 32 years. In 2002, it was reported that some three quarters of all persons held in Indian prisons had not been sentenced to jail, but were “under trial”—that is, awaiting trial. The largest number of under-trial or remand prisoners is to be found in the jails of Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, and Meghalaya, where more than 90 percent of the prison population, have reportedly not faced trial. According to a National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) study, Crime in India 2002, nearly 220, three quarters of all persons held in Indian prisons had not been sentenced to jail, but were “under trial”—that is, awaiting trial. The largest number of under-trial or remand prisoners is to be found in the jails of Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, and Meghalaya, where more than 90 percent of the prison population, have reportedly not faced trial. According to a National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) study, Crime in India 2002, nearly 220,000 cases took more than 3 years to reach court, and about 25,600 exhausted 10 years before they were completed. A staggering number of prison inmates awaiting trial have already been imprisoned longer than the most rigorous sentence that they could ever be given for the offence they are alleged to have committed.

Good governance is nothing, but ensuring justice for all. Too many laws make criminals out of ordinary men. Out of 525 sections of the Indian Penal Code, which define offences only about 100 or so are used. It is time to revise the Laws, so that most cases get disposed of as summary trials. We have the jail system devised, developed and implemented by the Britishers. It has failed to provide even basic justice to the inmates of the jails, before even conviction. If a prisoner wants human treatment, he has to bribe jail staff at almost every alternate step, if not, at every step. Moreover, the antique jail staff, has not been trained to handle Terrorists or Naxalites attacking jails, in some States, like Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar and many others, where they succeeded, in freeing their fellow travellers from the jails. This is the age of privatisation, then why not Government think of privatising the prison administration. Of course, the experiment can begin with, under-trials involved in ordinary crime, while the Government can keep the incarceration of criminals involved in serious crimes, like terrorism, murder, extortion and other serious offences under its own charge.

The Government should remember that Extremism in the defense of liberty and justice is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.