In 2018, the Supreme Court expressed concern about overcrowding in jails across the country, observing it as a "violation of human rights".
(Representational image/Creative Commons)
The Kerala government is taking proactive measures to address the concerns regarding overcrowding in jails across the state, a senior official of the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services told South First.
The official explained: “Despite not experiencing as severe overcrowding as in some other states, Kerala has initiated two significant steps aimed at mitigating overcrowding and ensuring the well-being of inmates.”
One was to implement the Union Home Ministry’s “Support to Poor Prisoners” Scheme, which the official said was being implemented in a fast-paced manner.
Another was the constitution of a seven-member committee at the district level to “initiate steps to examine the requirement of expanding the existing jails and acquiring land to set up new jails within the district”.
In 2018, the Supreme Court expressed concern about overcrowding in jails across the country and observed that it was a “violation of human rights”.
Kerala currently has 56 jails: Four central jails, 12 district jails, 16 sub-jails, 16 special sub-jails, three women’s jails, three open jails, one borstal school, and one high-security prison.
Though there was one more district jail at Pathanamthitta, it currently admits none as the construction of a new building is in progress. The inmates have been relocated to other prisons.
The available capacity of the jails in the state — as per Prison Statistics India of 2022 — is 8,369. The inmate population, as of 6 April, stands at 10,346. That is an excess of 1,977 inmates.
The overcrowding is such that, while the available capacity of the four central jails stands at 2,979, they currently house 3,967 inmates — an excess of 988 persons.
Meanwhile, 539 is the available capacity of sub-jails, but they have 951 persons lodged in them.
In the case of district jails, the available capacity is 2,248, but they currently have 2,541 inmates.
In May last year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs launched the “Support to Poor Prisoners” Scheme to provide relief to poor prisoners who are unable to either pay the fine imposed on them or secure bail due to financial constraints. Another objective of the scheme is to solve the prison-overcrowding problem.
The Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (KPCS) — a state agency — is of the assessment that many such prisoners are socially disadvantaged or belong to low-income groups and languish in jails.
“A scheme of this kind is expected to help them pay their outstanding amount of fine or secure bail, and they will be able to come out of jail and join the mainstream as responsible citizens. But for that, we need district-level statistics on such prisoners,” said the aforementioned official.
As per a decision taken on 2 April), a state-level oversight committee consisting of the home secretary, law secretary, Kerala State Legal Services Authority secretary, KPCS director general, and registrar general of the high court has been formed.
Along with that, a district-level empowered committee with the district collector, District Legal Services Authority secretary, the superintendent of police (SP) who has jurisdictional authority in the area where the prison is situated, and the superintendent of the concerned prison examine cases of eligible prisoners.
It will also have the power to sanction the amount required for paying a fine or bail amount.
The state has also appointed a deputy inspector general of prisons (from headquarters) as the nodal officer who may engage with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs or the central nodal agency — the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) — to implement the scheme.
The state Home Department has made it clear that some criteria would be in place while determining the eligibility of persons for getting the benefit of the scheme. They include:
It is also learnt that Union Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to the chief ministers of all states and UTs on 23 May, 2023, informing them about this scheme. However, many states have yet to constitute the committees and appoint nodal officers to implement it.
Another initiative that the state initiated towards addressing the overcrowding issue is constituting a seven-member committee to assess the available infrastructure in jails and make a decision on the number of additional jails to be constructed in the respective districts.
The committee comprises a principal or district judge (chairperson of the District Legal Services Authority), a district magistrate, a senior-most lady judicial officer, an SP, a secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, a superintendent of jail, and a superintendent of a Women Prison and Correctional Home (if available).
As per a directive issued by the state Home Department on 30 March, the committee “shall initiate steps to examine the requirement of expanding the existing jails and acquiring land to set up new jails within the district, depending on the current capacity, occupancy, and future demands of the district, and come up with firm proposals”.
It also reminded the committee to “keep in mind the requirement of incorporating artificial intelligence and introducing video conferencing for conducting meetings and telemedicine facilities for the ease of the inmates”.
(Edited by Arkadev Ghoshal)
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