The last straw
Context: Systemic neglect of the prisoners ensures that prisons act as warehouses for the marginalized.
Problems faced by prisoners in India
- They have to approach courts to get even a basic need: g. Stan Swamy, an 80-year-old prisoner with Parkinson’s, has to move the courts to get a sipper cup and a straw.
- The law on the provision of basic facilities to prisoners lies squarely with custodial authorities.
- Lack of medical care: Even a high-profile person lack medical care. E.g. Rajan Pillai death in Tihar jail.
- The Nelson Mandela Rules 2015 issued by the United Nations (UN) and the Model Prison Manual 2016 by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, have elaborate provisions regarding the care, treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners.
- Overcrowding: Between 2017 and 2019, overcrowding increased from 116% to 119 %.Some prisons are more than three times crowded than their official capacity.
- Increased vulnerability: Prolongation of criminal cases is unconscionable, as is forcing vulnerable people into remaining in hotspots of increased infection and fatal risk.
Underlying issues:
- Lack of awareness about the law and availability of little recourse: For 70 % of prisoners who are undertrials and more than 75 % who come from marginalized sections.
- High pendency of cases: Due to acute shortage of judges and court infrastructure.
- Between 2019 and 2020, the numbers of pending cases increased from 3.5 crores to 4 crores,
- According to the India Justice Report 2019, it takes an average of three years for the case to traverse the high court and six years in the subordinate courts.
- Lack of accountability and reforms: Due to on-ground constraints and the biases within the culture.
- Constitution of Undertrial Review Committees mandated by the Supreme Court, work patchily.
- In most prisons, the Board of Visitors for oversight mechanism are not even constituted.
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