Supreme Court-appointed panel recommends expanding semi-open/open prisons

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, August 31

A Supreme Court-appointed panel on prison reforms has recommended expanding the open prison system and establishment of oversight committees in every state to monitor the functioning of prison departments, promoting transparency and accountability.

Noting that the open prison system was active only in 18 states and one union territory as on November 30, 2018, the panel recommended establishment of open/semi-open prisons across India by replicating the best practices of some of the states.

A Bench led by Justice Hima Kohli on Tuesday asked Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agrawal to share the report with advocates for the Union of India and various states and posted the matter for further hearing on September 26.

According to the report, as on November 30, 2018, the occupancy rate of prisons in India stood at 122% with 1341 total jails in India with 644 sub-jails, followed by 402 District Jails, 143 Central Courts, 26 women jails, 20 Borstal Schools and 16 Special Jails.

Suicide was a major cause of the 817 unnatural deaths reported in jails across India during 2017-21, the panel said and recommended building suicide resistant barracks.

Headed by Justice Amitava Roy (Retd), it said that out of the 817 unnatural deaths, 660 were suicides – the maximum 101 of which took place in Uttar Pradesh.

The committee suggested segregating undertrials and convicts to check violence in jails and recommended using video conferencing to extend judicial remand as also to conduct trials and underlined the need for a robust grievance redressal mechanism to address the issue of abuse/harassment of women inmates and suggested telemedicine facilities for them.

The top court – which has been hearing a suo motu PIL on inhuman conditions in prisons — asked the Centre and states to furnish details about availability of adequate information technology infrastructure for conducting virtual court proceedings and visitation rights of family members of inmates.

In order to deal with overcrowding of jails, the committee suggested that the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) guidelines should be implemented to strengthen the ‘Undertrial Review Committee’ mechanism.

It also emphasised revising the Model Prison Manual, 2016 to include a dedicated chapter with specific provisions in line with the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.