Our Overcrowded Jails

Two Undertrials for Each Convict
* For every one person who has been jailed after getting convicted, two inmates of the Indian jails are undertrials.
* Men make up 96% of the jail inmates.
* Number of undertrials increased by 9.3% during 2012-13 while that of convicts grew by only 1.4%. Of late, more undertrials facing charges of crimes against women are in jails. This number shot up by 30% during the period.
* Muslims form 17% of convicts and 21% of undertrials.
* There were 2.8 lakh undertrials in jails. Of them over 3,000 were behind bars for over 5 years.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have the most number of undertrials. Here is a breakup of some important states:
State: Undertrials Convicts
Uttar Pradesh 58,100 25,310
Bihar 26,609 4,480
Madhya Pradesh 17,568 16,869
Karnataka 9,506 4,418
Kerala 4,621 2,772
Delhi 10,154 3.388
Andhra Pradesh 9,701 4,598
Tamil Nadu 8,292 4,648
Overcrowded Jails
There are 1,276 prisons in India. The number of inmates in these prisons is 376,396 against the sanctioned capacity of 277,304 i.e., 36% overcrowding. The highest crowding was reported from U.P. i.e., 201%, Chhattisgarh 193% and Delhi 187%.
Children of convicts/Undertrials
347 Women Convicts with their 391 children and 1,338 Women undertrials with their
1,510 children were reported to be in prisons in the country.
Murder alone accounted for 59% of the total convicts under Indian Penal Code.
308 convicts including 6 females lodged in different jails of the country at the end of
2007 were awarded capital punishment.
63,828 Convicts accounting for 53.1% of total convicts in the country were undergoing
sentence for Life Imprisonment at the end of the year 2007.
The highest earning by inmates trained in various vocational programmes was reported
from Maharashtra (Rs.1,534.5 lakh) followed by Bihar (Rs.936.7 lakh).
3,096 (i.e. 6.2%) staff members were women out of the total 49,574 staff managing jails.
On an average Rs.12,965 were spent on an inmate during the year 2007-08.
The prisons had a strength of 49,574 Jail Officials to take care of 376,396 inmates
which amounts to one Jail Official per eight inmates.
36,421 of total convicted prisoners were illiterate, 52,834 had education up to 10th class, 20,521 had education above matriculation but below graduation, 5,340 were graduates, 1,346 were post-graduates and 3,653 were holding some technical degree.
88,312 of total undertrial prisoners were illiterate, 108,642 had education up to 10th standard, 39,861 had education above 10th standard but below graduation, 9,762 were graduates, 2,806 were post-graduates and 1,344 were holding some technical degree.
(Note: These statistics pertain to the end of 2007, latest to be available so far.)