The human cost of India’s broken prison system

Recent reports expose widespread inequity and institutional decay in prisons

In India’s criminal justice system, due process has been turned into a sharp reflection of the social and economic schisms in the country. A grim picture of inequity, inertia, and institutional rot is revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau’s Prison Statistics India 2023 report released in September, alongside updated information on the Undertrial Review Committee published in April, and the India Justice Report 2025.

As of December 31, 2023, which was the cut-off date for the report, more than 5.3 lakh people were imprisoned in Indian jails. The NCRB has indicated a slight decrease in the share of undertrials (434,302 in 2022 to 389,910 in 2023). Two new prisons were built in India, which added capacity by an insignificant 0.7% (436,266 in 2022 to 439,119 in 2023), and chronic overcrowding remains the order of the day. Uttar Pradesh (18.8%, 73,491 undertrials), Bihar (11.9%, 46,529 undertrials), and Maharashtra (8.3%, 32,438 undertrials), which contain the highest number of inmates, accommodate ~40% of all undertrials, forcing many of them to run at 150-250% of the sanctioned capacity.

The India Justice Report 2025 shows that this congestion is just the tip of the iceberg. Depleted budgets, unfilled vacancies, and a lack of accountability add to the problems. Nationally, the average prison overcrowding stands at 131%. In Jharkhand’s prison section,  over 60% of the posts remain vacant. 

An underlying human tragedy of enormous proportions lurks behind these abstractions. Nearly half of all undertrials are young adults aged 18 to 30, losing their most important years behind bars. About two-thirds have less than a secondary education, leaving them unprepared to handle the complex legal system. The correlation between poverty, caste, and criminalisation is excruciatingly evident—nearly two-thirds of the under-trials are Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. Caste hierarchies reflect the continuing structural inequity in the form of incarceration in states where they are prevalent, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The plight of imprisoned women adds another layer of misery. By December 2023, 1,318 women (1,049 were undertrials, accompanied by 1,191 children) and 1,492 children were incarcerated, with several of those detained in overcrowded institutions.

When it comes to legal aid, there has been a 38% drop in the number of volunteers since 2019. The number of para-legals working in Jharkhand is low; the state has only 3.78 volunteers per lakh population compared to the national average of five. Oversight institutions like the State Human Rights Commissions suffer perennial vacancies and insufficiency of digital infrastructure, which suppresses the structures that are meant to support accountability.

The sickness is spread way beyond prison walls. In Jharkhand, the vacancy rate among police officers and constables is 33.9% and 25.9% respectively. The courts are handicapped by structural shortages, which only increase the backlog and extend the untried detentions. To the poor and the marginalised, justice has become a distant mirage.

India has the lowest incarceration rate of 37 per 100,000 population in the world; however, its 74% under-trial rate presents a moral dilemma. It is not the over-imprisonment, but unfair imprisonment: the people who are sent to prison are often not the most dangerous, but the most disadvantaged. 

Prisons should help reform people, but instead they reflect society’s neglect. Recommendations from undertrial review committees must be enforced, and old cases should be reviewed at regular intervals. More fast-track courts, video conferencing, and digital systems can expedite the justice process. In the end, the best criminal policy is a good social policy.

Jisu Ketan Pattanaik is assistant professor of Sociology, and Sumit Kumar Singh is research assistant and student, at the National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi. (Authors’ X handles: @JisuDr and @singh_sumit0)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.