70% prisoners in Indian jails are undertrials, observes parliamentary panel

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has observed that 70 per cent of the prisoners in Indian jails are undertrials and they are not being released from the prisons for want of sureties or inability to pay fine amounts.

The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs also observed that surveillance technology should be used at every entry point in the prisons to detect drugs.

"The committee has observed that more than 70 per cent of the prisoners in Indian jails are undertrials. They are not being released from the prisons for the want of sureties or inability to pay the fine amounts.

"The prison administrations are spending a lot more money on keeping such prisoners inside jails than the bail money required for their release. A fund on the lines of 'Cheyutha Nidhi' started by Andhra Pradesh Prison Department for payment of fine amounts for poor prisoners should be created in all the States and UTs," the report, submitted to Rajya Sabha, observed.

The panel observed that technology should also be used to address the challenges of smuggling of drugs in prisons as prison staff cannot fully contain this menace and they need the assistance of technological intervention to address this issue.

It recommended that a multi-layered approach such as physical search, use of X-ray scanners, other devices that can detect drugs and rehabilitation programmes for prisoners afflicted with drug addiction should also be put in place as it can significantly reduce the entry of drugs within correctional facilities and jails.

The states and Union Territories (UTs) may consider planning programmes like Opioid Substitute Therapy (OST) as in the case of Assam to de-addict and wean away such prisoners in the jails, it observed.

During its interactive sessions with various state and UT governments, the committee was informed that 'ganja' and cell phones, among others, are the common contraband items that are most frequently smuggled into the prisons.

The Tamil Nadu government informed that throw method using a catapult is one of the common approaches employed to smuggle contraband goods into the prisons.

The panel observed that articles like cell phones inside the prison are used by the inmates to operate criminal activities outside the prison. Possession of cell phones in the hands of the prisoners can also stir up gang wars inside jails.

Usage of ganja and other narcotics in the prisons compromises the reformation and rehabilitation of the inmates. The committee also observed that e-Mulakat, video conferencing etc. will also help reduce the smuggling of contraband into the prison as prisoners can communicate with their families through such facilities.

The panel noted that the prison staff are helping the inmates to get the contraband items inside the jail. Keeping in view the negative impact the contraband items can have on the reformation of prisoners, it recommended that the frisking standards should be enhanced in all the state prisons.