According to official data, the prison population rose by 1.5 per cent in 2020 over the previous year, with about 76 per cent of the inmates held pending trial. The only positive note is the drop in deaths in prison, down to 1,764 in 2020.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – India’s prison population is growing, rising by 1.5 per cent in 2020 over the previous year, for a total of 488,511, this according to the India Justice Report,
This is particularly worrisome since 2020 was also the first year of the pandemic and that the second COVID-19 wave in the first months of 2021 was particularly intense in prisons.
The number of people arrested in 2020 increased by 900,000 over 2019. Overcrowding in prison is due to the number of people waiting to go to trial, whose share of the prison population rose from 69 per cent in December 2019 to 76 per cent in December 2021.
The report also notes a drastic decline in the access of prisoners to the courts, down by 65 per cent, as well as hospital care, down by 24 per cent in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only positive note is the decline in the number of people dying in prison, from 1,887 in 2019 to 1,764 in 2020.