-The Hindu Prisons are meant to facilitate rehabilitation but have become disempowering spaces with a mental health crisis The latest numbers are out. 9,180 prisoners with mental illness, 150 deaths by suicide, five prisoners with schizophrenia and epilepsy have died. While we know the numbers, we do not know what is being considered as a mental illness and whether these numbers are limited to persons who are in the mental health ward, or...
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Why Are India's Jails so Overcrowded? -Murali Krishnan
-Newsclick.in Prison occupancy in India has been on the rise over the past five years with overcrowded jails struggling to cater to the needs of prisoners. Experts point to the mass incarceration of pre-trial prisoners. Following an increase in prison overcrowding in India, critics are calling for new reforms to the judicial process, to decrease the length of trials and reduce the number of inmates. Three out of every four people held in...
More »Data check: Three out of four prisoners in Indian jails are undertrials -Nileena Suresh
-India Spend/ Scroll.in While the total number of prison inmates rose by 1% between 2019 and 2020, the number of undertrial inmates increased by nearly 12% Three in four prisoners in India’s jails are under trial, according to government data for the year 2020, the latest year for which such data is available. This is the highest share of undertrial detainees in prison since at least 1995, the earliest year for which...
More »Prison Statistics Report 2020 Shows Govt’s Negligence of Prisoners During the Pandemic -Saranga Ugalmugle and Ancy Susan George
-TheWire.in Contrary to expectations, the report shows that 40,000 more undertrials were held in prisons in 2020 than in 2019. Congestion in prisons in India came into renewed focus after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Courts took urgent measures to prevent the spread of the contagious virus in prisons, asking state governments to set up high powered committees to release incarcerated persons on bail or parole. As a consequence, it is...
More »People of denotified tribes continue to bear the burden of an unjust colonial past -Nikita Sonavane, Srujana Bej and Ameya Bokil
-The Indian Express Certain communities such as the Denotified Tribes (DNTs), which have a history of persecution by the criminal justice system, are targeted under specific laws and legal provisions. In August, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released the annual Prison Statistics Report for 2019. This compilation provides demographic information on prison inmates for administrative categories such as age, gender, religion and caste. It has consistently highlighted to lawmakers the overrepresentation...
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