Believe it or not, Karnataka has only 2 psychiatrists for 14,000 prisoners

Karnataka has only two psychiatrists for 14,591 prison inmates, one in Bengaluru Central Prison and one in Mysuru. Six posts were sanctioned by the government in August last year but the recruitment is yet to be made with the Prisons department passing the buck to the Health department.

The state saw 67 deaths in prisons last year out of which 57 were due to natural causes, 10 were unnatural of which seven were suicides. The Karnataka High Court has been hearing a petition on “inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons.”

The Supreme Court has transferred the matter to high courts of all the states. The Prison and Health departments have to update the court on staff availability and health condition of inmates.

A top official of the Prisons department said on condition of anonymity that district mental health officers have been assessing the mental health of inmates in respective jails.

“As soon as the posts were sanctioned last year, we had sent a letter to the Health Department asking them to recruit six psychiatrists and 20 psychiatric social workers. But since outsourced staff cannot be recruited in prisons we have recently asked them to recruit doctors on a contract basis,” the official added.

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Commissioner, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Karnataka, said that since the department cannot call for recruitment in small numbers like six psychiatrists or 20 social workers, instructions have been issued to deputy commissioners in respective districts to hire them as per the norms of National Health Mission (NHM).

“The prison department was offering a salary of Rs 65,000 per month. We pay Rs 1.05 lakh to our psychiatrists under NHM. So we’ve asked them to increase the salary. We are deputing our MBBS doctors to all the district central prisons. 90% of Mysuru prison inmates have been evaluated. Bengaluru inmates’ assessment is almost complete,” Pandey said.

An official from Bengaluru Central Prison said that currently one psychiatrist and one clinical psychologist look after 4,893 inmates out of which approximately 400 have been diagnosed as mentally ill. “They go on rounds. Whenever they observe symptoms, they’re referred for further evaluation,” the official said.