Prison Statistics India, 2016

The Prison statistics for 2016 released in April 2019, with neither an explanation for the long delay nor any indication as to when data for later years will be published. The report is published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

• Prison Population: At the end of 2016, there were close to 4,33,000 people in prison. Of these, 68% were undertrials, or people who are yet to be found guilty of the crimes they are accused of.
• Preventive Detention: There is rise in the number of people held under administrative (or ‘preventive’) detention laws in Jammu and Kashmir. There has been a 300% increase, with 431 detainees in 2016, compared to 90 in 2015.
• Prisoner Release: A new addition to the report is the data on number of prisoners eligible to be released and actually released. In 2016, out of nearly 1,500 undertrials found eligible for release under Section 436A, only 929 were released.
• Unnatural Deaths: Unnatural deaths doubled between 2015 and 2016, from 115 to 231.
• Mental Health Concerns: About 6,000 individuals with mental illness were in jail in 2016.The rate of suicide among prisoners has also increased by 28%, from 77 in 2015 to 102 in 2016.This is an indicator of the magnitude of mental health concerns within prisons.

Shortcomings in Report

• Absence of Demographic Details: The most significant shortcoming of the present report lies in the NCRB’s failure to include demographic details of religion and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe status of prisoners, which are crucial for understanding India’s prison population.
• Prison Visits Data Unavailable: The 2016 prison statistics does not mention the number of prison visits by official and non-official visitors which typically include district magistrates and judges, social workers and researchers. This is essential to uncover torture and other forms of ill-treatment, increase transparency and balance the power asymmetry in prisons.