By December 2022, India’s prisons were filled to 131% of capacity, up one percentage point from 2021, according to latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau. This is despite a campaign in July last year to identify undertrial prisoners eligible for release, and the country adding 11 prisons since 2021.
Overall, there were 573,220 prisoners in India, according to the 2022 Prison Statistics India report, an annual dataset released by the crime records bureau since 1995. The majority of inmates – more than three in four – are undertrials, reflecting a continuing trend since the previous years. Three in four prisoners in India’s jails were under trial in 2020, which was the highest share of undertrial detainees in prison since at least 1995, IndiaSpend reported in February 2022.
Similarly, a majority of the undertrials belong to oppressed caste groups including the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. IndiaSpend had reported on the high proportion of undertrials from these groups in September 2020.
Further, 119 prisoners died by suicide in 2022, at a rate of 20.8 prisoners per 100,000 prisoners. This is 67% more than India’s suicide rate of 12.4 per 100,000 population.
Prison occupancy
The National Legal Services Authority, or NALSA, ran a campaign in July 2022 to identify undertrial prisoners eligible for release. Nearly 25,000 undertrial prisoners were released on bail, according to NALSA’s 2022 report. The campaign is estimated to have resulted in the decrease in prison population by nearly 5% and undertrials by 6%, resulting in a reduction of prison occupancy by 6%. Further, India added 11 prisons, increasing the country’s prison capacity by 10,657.
Yet, in absolute numbers, India’s prisons had 19,186 more prisoners by the end of 2022, compared with 2021. Since 2011, the prison population increased each year. In 2021, Indian prisons saw the highest increase in prisoners at 13.4%.
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