74.18 per cent of prison population are undertrials

The Commission continued to analyse data relating to the prison population in various States/Union Territories, statistics being obtained as of 30 June and 31 December of each year. An analysis of the prison population as of 30 June 2001 in respect of all the States/UTs except Sikkim and UT Chandigarh was considered by the Commission. It indicated that there were a total of 2,90,065 prisoners in the jails of the States/UTs as of 30 June 2001 against the authorized capacity of 2,19,880, i.e., an overall crowding of approximately 31.2 per cent. Overcrowding in jails was being experienced in 10 States, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, the UTs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi. Mizoram had the most over-crowded jails in the country (442%), followed by Jharkhand (260%), Delhi (192%), Haryana (165%) and Chhatisgarh (115%). Jails in nine States, namely, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Pondicherry had underutilized capacity.

Undertrials constituted 74.19 percent of the total jail population in the country. In as many as eight States and three UTs, more than 80 per cent of the jail population comprised undertrials. The Commission had noted with satisfaction that the percentage of undertrials in prisons is less than 60 percent in Chhatisgarh (53%), Himachal Pradesh (58%), Madhya Pradesh (57%), Tamil Nadu (31%), West Bengal (59%), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (38%) and Pondicherry (53%).

Women account for 3.12 per cent of the total jail population in the country. Mizoram had the highest percentage of women in jail (11.02%) followed by Chhatisgarh (5.69%), Manipur (5.63%), Daman & Diu (5.55%), Delhi (4.45%), Maharashtra (4.29%) and Punjab (4.28%). Tripura has the lowest percentage of women in jails (1.46%) followed by Meghalaya (1.53%), Uttaranchal (2.03%) and Rajasthan (2.07%).