NHRC to recommend prison reforms, set up monitoring system: Chairperson

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairperson Justice V. Ramasubramanian stated that the commission will prepare recommendations for the central and state governments on prison reforms and establish a system to monitor their progress.

Chairing the National Conference on ‘Human Rights for Prison Inmates’ in New Delhi, organised by the NHRC, India, Justice V. Ramasubramanian said the purpose of the Conference was to learn from all the stakeholders about the problems being faced by the prison inmates and how and what appropriate recommendations can be sent to the centre and state governments.

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“During the discussions, a lot of valuable suggestions came up on rehabilitation of prisoners, de-congestion of jails, encouraging correctional services, improving the mental health of prisoners, addressing the issues related to women prisoners and their children and de-addiction,” the NHRC said in a statement on Friday.

Earlier, starting the discussions, Justice Ramasubramanian said that, as per the UN office on Drugs and Crime report, the global prison population reached 11.5 million in 2022. Nearly a third of the global prison population is of pre-trial detainees with extensive costs to the state, communities, families and individuals. Prisons are overcrowded in the majority of countries worldwide. The budget, resource and capacity constraints lead to unlivable conditions and poor prison health. Prisons reinforce existing inequalities with an over-representation of marginalised communities and insufficient attention to women, youth, persons with disabilities and other prisoners with special needs.

Quoting from the Prison Statistics India 2022 report released by the National Crime Records Bureau in December 2023, he said that in 2020, the occupancy rate of prisons in the country was higher by 118 per cent than the actual capacity of 1306 prisons. It further rose to 131.4 per cent of the actual capacity of 1330 prisons in 2022. The increase in the number of prisons did not help the situation.

Justice Ramasubramanian cited various laws in the colonial era and after independence with regard to prisons.

He said that a recent initiative included the ‘Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act,’ prepared by the Union Government in the year 2023, with the objective of holistically addressing all relevant issues relating to prison administration. It has been shared with all States and Union Territories to modify their respective Prison Acts.