Eight out of 10 prisoners across India were awaiting trial in 2021, the latest India Justice Report said.
The report made the observation after analysing the Prisons Statistics India report 2021, which was released last month.
According to the report, out of the 5.54 lakh prisoners in India, 77% or 4.27 lakh were under trial.
“With the exception of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura, the undertrial population of all other states exceed 60%,” the report said. “Delhi’s prisons house 91% undertrials, i.e., 9 out of 10 prisoners await completion of their trial.”
It added that 24,033 undertrials have been in jails for three to five years, while 11,490 have been confined for over five years. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had the highest number in this context.
Out of the total undertrials in the country, 21.08% belonged to Scheduled Caste, 9.88% to Scheduled Tribes and 18% were Muslims.
The occupancy rate of the prison also increased from 120% in 2020 to 130% in 2021. This means that prisons had 5,54,034 inmates, a lakh more than their capacity of 4,25,609.
“With the onset of the second wave of the pandemic, and fresh directions to limit arrests and decongest prisons, only 93,526 inmates were released in 17 states/UTs between March and July…
