Prison: a building in which people are legally held as a punishment for a crime they have committed or while awaiting trial. Every day, every minute and every second crime are committed and people are sent to prison. According to the Prison Statistics India 2015 report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India’s prisons are overcrowded with an occupancy ratio of 14% more than the capacity. The major reason for the jails being overcrowded is the slow justice system we have. Many inmates in the jail are not criminals but are undertrial which creates a large number of inmates residing in the jail. Indian jails are going from bad to worse in living conditions.
Once Mahatama Gandhi said,” Don’t punish the criminal, punish the crime”.This clearly draws the line on why prisons should be made better to improve the lives of inmates. Sections 37, 39-A, 39-B and 39-C of the Prisons Act deal with sick prisoners and require that prisoners at the time of their entry in prison be asked about their health, particularly relating to tuberculosis and AIDS etc. Human Rights legal network filed multiple Writ petitions in Delhi High Court in which the concern issue was the health of the inmates. Delhi High Court issued directions to the Delhi Government while disposing of a series of writ petitions filed by Human Rights Law Network. Several petitions were clubbed together and the counsel of HRLN argued that there should be the availability of primary healthcare in prisons. Not only this, inmates suffering from communicable diseases should be kept in separate wards and if required they should be treated in the hospitals outside. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh, in Anil Kumar v. the State of M.P., (decided on November 30, 1999), enumerated the factors which account for an increase in the number of prisoners exposed to infection of tuberculosis in prisons. There should be a board of visitors, official and Non-Official. Board of Visitors should be members from all walks of life such as NGO workers, social activists, media persons, women, etc. This would help a prisoner to reform and rebuilt his life. He can recollect the pieces of his broken life when given a proper consultation.
Mulla Committee on Prison reforms deeply wanted prisons to be in the concurrent list rather than an in-state list. This change could have brought more accountability on the part of the government. This is a high time when we should work on making prisons a place for reformation not a place to find new struggles. This will only lead to the plight in the lives of people.