No place to even set foot! Jails of the country are full of prisoners, the condition of UP-Uttarakhand is worst

According to the India Justice Report (IJR)-2022 released a few days back by Tata Trust, the prisoner ratio in jails of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh is ‘worst in the country’. While Uttarakhand’s 11 jails have 185 per cent inmates against their capacity, UP has 184.8 per cent and Madhya Pradesh has 164.1 per cent.

More prisoners than capacity in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand
As of December 2021, when the data was compiled, Uttarakhand, at the bottom of the list, has a capacity of 3,741 in its 11 jails, including the central jail, which houses 6,921 prisoners. The state’s prisons were shown as ‘severe’ (150-185%) along with other states/UTs like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

More than 150 percent prisoners in 391 jails
Similarly, there are six states in the ‘very high’ category (120-150%) of inmates in jail, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand. The report said that out of a total of 1,314 prisons in India, 391 prisons (30 per cent) have more than 150 per cent inmates. In terms of number of prisons with more than 150% inmates, UP tops with 57 out of 74 prisons, followed by MP 40 (out of 131 prisons) and West Bengal 36 (out of 60 prisons).

The condition of the doctor and the poor for the prisoners
In the report, Uttarakhand has been given the last number in the category of availability of medical officers in jails. The Himalayan state has only one doctor for 6,921 inmates against the sanctioned strength of 10 doctors. Andhra Pradesh has performed ‘best’ in this regard, with one doctor for every 418 prisoners. Uttarakhand also had the maximum number of vacancies (77.1%) for prison officers among all 18 states. Kerala had the lowest vacancies with 6.9%.

Worst condition of Uttarakhand
In terms of states with maximum workload on prison officers, Uttarakhand was again at the bottom of the list with a figure of 532 prisoners per officer. Tamil Nadu had the best figures in this regard with 21 prisoners per officer. Talking about the findings of the report, Dadhiram Maurya, DIG, Prisons Department, Uttarakhand said that the state is taking measures to improve the situation. We are building two new jails with a capacity of about 2,600. They are likely to be completed by 2024 and will solve the issue of congestion to some extent.