The recently released Prison Statistics India 2021 shows that deaths and illness in Indian prisons have been on the increase. Total deaths have increased from 1764 in 2019 to 2116 in 2021. Natural death during this period increased from 1538 to 1879, and un-natural death including suicides from 160 to 185.

In comparison to 2020, deaths have increased by an alarming rate of 12.1 per cent in 2021, while death due to natural causes by 14.4 per cent. Among 185 un-natural deaths or inmates, 150 committed suicides, 11 murdered by inmates, 6 died in accidents, 3 died due to assault by outside elements, 1 died due to firing and 1 due to negligence/excess during 2021. For 52 deaths cause of death are yet to be known.

The number of prisons in the country have increased by 1 per cent from 1306 in 2020 to 1319 in 2021 and the capacity has increased from 4,14,303 to 4,25,609. However, the occupancy rate has increased from 118 per cent to 130.2 per cent making their conditions inhuman even for toilets and water. As on December 31, 2021, there were 5,54,034 as against 4,88,511 in 2020, which was an increase of 13.4 per cent.

The number of inmates coming in and out of jails throughout the year is much more, which makes the conditions much worse. For example, during the year 2021, a total of 18,06,823 inmates were admitted in various jails of the country which was a 10.8 per cent increase over 16,31,110 in 2020. The number of released convicts were 93,077 in 2021, which was a decline of 15 per cent from 1,09,516 in 2020, while release of undertrials increased by 13.7 per cent from 12,91,504 to 14,68,627 during this period.

Condition is much worse in several states where occupancy rate is much higher than the average 130.2 per cent. Uttarakhand has reported the highest occupancy rate (185.0%) followed by Uttar Pradesh (184.8%), Delhi (182.5%), Sikkim (166.9%) and Madhya Pradesh (164.1%). Uttarakhand has reported the highest female occupancy rate (178.8%) followed by Bihar (152.3%) and Chhattisgarh (147.6%).

The highest number of female inmates were confined in the jails of Uttar Pradesh (4,995) followed by Bihar (3,067) and Madhya Pradesh (1,892). Only 15 states/UTs out of 36 have separate Women Jails (32) with total capacity of 6,767, where only 3,808 were imprisoned as on December 31, 2021. However, total number of female prisoners in the country were 22,918 and transgenders were 91. There were 1,650 women prisoners with 1,867 children by the end of 2021. Among these women prisoners, 1,418 were undertrials who were accompanied by 1,601 children and 216 convicted prisoners who were accompanied by 246 children.

Number of convicts in jails were 1,22,852 accounting for only 22.2 per cent of all prisoners. This number has declined from 1,44,567 in 2019. The performance of the prosecuting agencies has clearly gone worse. No wonder, the government loved to detain people without giving them fair chance of trial. It is reflected even in the increased number of detenues from 3,223 in 2019 to 3,470 in 2021. Number of undertrials have also jumped from 3,32,916 to 4,27,165 during this period. A total of 9,409 detenues were released during the year 2021.
The maximum number of inmates (2,41,320 inmates, 43.6%) were belonging to the age group 18-30 years followed by the age group 30-50 years (2,39,814 inmates, 43.3%). A total of 72,893 inmates (13.2%) were belonging to the age group above 50 years, and only 7 inmates belonged to the age group of 16-18 years.

The literacy profile of the prisoners speaks in itself about vulnerabilities of the persons having low educational level. A total of 2,22,513 (40.2%) prisoners was Below Class X, 1,33,131 (24.0%) were Class X and above but below Graduation, 41,565 (7.5%) were having a Degree, 10,082 (1.8%) were Post Graduates and 7,052 (1.3%) prisoners were Technical Degree/Diploma holders. A total of 1,39,691 (25.2%) prisoners were Illiterate.

Around 90.9 per cent prisoners were belonging to the same state, 8.1 per cent from other states and about 1 per cent from other country. Among the convicts, 93.4 per cent were from the same state, 5.8 per cent from other states and 0.9 per cent foreigners. Haryana reported highest number of convicts (16.5 per cent) from other states while Marashtra reported highest number of undertrials (13.8 per cent) from other states.

The number of foreign prisoners has increased from 4,926 in 2020 to 5,565 in 2021, having increased by 13.0% during this period. However, percentage of foreign prisoners has remained at 1 per cent. At the end of 2021, there were 4646 males, 906 females, and 13 transgenders. Among the foreign prisoners 19.4 per cent were convicts, 74.6 per cent were undertrials, and 0.7 per cent were detenues. Highest number of foreign convicts were from Bangladesh (46.8%, 505 convicts) followed by Nepal (26.0%, 281 convicts), Nigeria (6.8%, 73 convicts) and Pakistanis (5.8%, 63 convicts) at the end of 2021. West Bengal has reported the highest number of foreign convicts lodged in their jails (30.5%, 329) followed by Uttar Pradesh (23.8%, 257) and Delhi (5.6%, 61).
Among the foreign Undertrials, the highest number of foreign undertrials were from Bangladesh (41.8%, 1,735 undertrial) followed by Nigeria (18.7%, 774 undertrial) and Nepal (14.2%, 589 undertrial) at the end of 2021. West Bengal has reported the highest number of foreign undertrial lodged in their jails (28.4%, 1,179) followed by Delhi (14.2%, 589) and Maharashtra (12.1%, 502) at the end of 2021.

About 52.3 per cent of jails are in just six states of the country – Rajasthan (144), followed by Tamil Nadu (142), Madhya Pradesh (131), Andhra Pradesh (106), Odisha (92) and Utter Pradesh (75).
Uttar Pradesh has reported the highest number of prisoners (1,17,789) in its jails contributing 21.3% followed by Bihar (66,879), Madhya Pradesh (48,513), Maharashtra (36,853), Punjab (26,146) and West Bengal (25,769) contributing altogether around 58.1% of total prisoners in the country.

A total of 472 prisoners are in jails who had been sentenced for Capital Punishment, and out of them 148 were sentenced in 2021. The number of prisoners serving life imprisonment were 73,508 accounting 59.8 per cent of the total convicts. Release of convicts has declined by 15 per cent while release of undertrial has increased by 13.7 per cent. A total of 198 convicts were pardoned.