Prisoners in India: Rights in Plight

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY SNEHA GHOSH, A STUDENT OF SYMBIOSIS INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”- Nelson Mandela

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever imagined, what a world without laws and regulations would look like? Where everyone has to look out for themselves for which they can even hurt each other? There would be utter chaos, endless fighting, and destruction thus pushing the existence of mankind in great peril.

Preventing such a situation is the very purpose of the law, which imposes certain restrictions to ensure the smooth functioning of society. It also awards certain basic rights to every human regardless of caste, creed, gender, color, etc. These rights are known as human rights i.e., right to liberty & security, right to life, right to protection from torture, etc. which have been accepted universally (including India) by most of the countries through international treaties and conventions. Backed by the landmark document of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which enumerates the expanse of human rights and their discourse essentially implying that these rights are inalienable and cannot be compromised by the State, under any circumstance.

LEGAL INSTRUMENTS

These human rights are guaranteed by the Constitution in the form of fundamental rights, under Article12-35, available by virtue of being a human. But unfortunately, there are still thousands in the country who are denied these rights. especially those who are put behind the bars and segregated from the entire society so their cry for rights remains unheard.

The International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights,1966 is a cornerstone treaty formulated for the sole purpose of protection of rights and the welfare of prisoners, which should the state must abide by virtue of being a welfare state and its international commitments.

Numerous legislations like The Prisons Act,1894,The Prisoners Act,1900 and judicial precedents like“D.B.M.Patnaik v. State of Andhra Pradesh” provide a dense pool of information on safeguarding the human rights of prisoners but their strict application and supervision  remains absent resulting in agony to lakhs of people, every single day throughout the state.

GROUND REALITY

Today India has the fourth largest incarceration rate and a remand rate of sixty-nine percent, which is a very high value. People spend months often years, languishing in jails, just awaiting trial, many of them being arrested for petty crimes like pick-pocketing shoplifting, or even speeding at a signal. For which the trial period often exceeds the punishment period as prescribed in the Indian penal code. Prisoners in India are entitled to basic rights which can’t be taken away from them at any cost. The indispensable one’s being, the right to food& water, the right to an attorney, right to a free&fair trial, protection against torture, violence, racial harassment, and so on. Though according to the data shown by various newspapers and reports, the prison conditions in India are underwhelming, and little to no humanity is shown to the prisoners. They are ill-treated, thrashed, and beaten often to self-incriminate or purely out of ego issues and personal vendetta if they try to speak up against the injustices meted out to them. The gut-wrenching incident of custodial torture and ultimate deaths of father-son duo P.Jeyaraj and J.Beniks last year is a living example. Everyday cases of police brutality against the convicts surface on the internet or print media often, in utter violation of their right to be safeguarded against torture.

INSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

According to a report by news18, Tihar Jail- the largest prison complex in South Asia, contains twenty thousand detainees, much beyond its capacity of ten thousand. A delegation of MPs was sent to visit the Tihar jail and they were left in shock looking at the inhuman living condition of the prisoners, adding that the condition of senior citizen prisoners, in particular, has been “extremely sad”. Besides, in an alarming observation, the Committee found that several prisoners continue to rot in the jail, despite bail being granted to them as the orders take longer to reach the jail. This is one such example but this is the condition of most prisons across India, they are highly overcrowded and understaffed and as a result, the prisoners receive zero privacy, it also leads to many fights and clashes as no proper segregation happens, again in the desecration of the right to privacy guaranteed under article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

The majority are undertrial victims which is a denial of their right to a fair and speedy trial as established by the supreme court in “Sheela Barse v. Union of India”. Many suffer from chronic illnesses like diabetes and require regular check-ups and medications which they don’t have access to because of the severe shortage of resources in jails, which increases the count of custodial fatalities. In comparison to the general population, prisoners are a disadvantaged group with various complicated health requirements and poorer health outcomes. The medical inefficiency of the prison administrations has caused a severe rise in the mortality rates of the inmates. the Gujarat High Court in “Rasikbhai Ramsing Rana v. State of Gujarat”, “ruled that the right to medical treatment is one of the fundamental human rights that should be guaranteed to everyone. The court also instructed the appropriate jail authorities to provide proper mental and physical health care to any convicts suffering from diseases. ruled that the right to medical treatment is one of the fundamental human rights that should be guaranteed to everyone”.

Women and children who are incarcerated face even more difficult circumstances. Mahila Jails are getting increasingly dangerous and authoritarian. Women are also subjected to the weight of society’s stigma, as women who have been imprisoned are morally judged and, as a result, are abandoned, often by their own families. The lack of privacy in the cells has been a common occurrence. When being examined, these women have no bodily autonomy and are unable to resist the touches of female guards on their private parts, which is a violation of their right to privacy, which is granted by the Indian constitution to all citizens, including convicts while in the case of  “State of Andhra Pradesh v. Challa Ramakrishna Reddy”, the Supreme Court declared that “right to privacy is a primary human right and so fundamental in nature that it can’t be infringed by the state as well. Even when incarcerated, a person retains his or her humanity and is thus entitled to all fundamental rights, including the right to life”.

COVID SCENARIO

Things have only worsened with the onset of the pandemic and nationwide lockdown, as the prisons remain highly congested which has the possibility to spread the virus like wildfire for which several steps were taken by the Supreme court of India, and eventually, 68,264 prisoners were released on interim bail across the country until 14 December 2020.

For those still locked up, Covid took a toll on their mental health as interaction with family or friends even via electronic media was completely cut off and many couldn’t stay in touch with their lawyers hindering their court trials. Many reports also show that the total number of fully-vaccinated prisoners is brutally low. For example, only eight percent of the Tihar jails population has been vaccinated according to an article published in The Hindu dated June 20, 2021. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of inmates have received little attention, despite the high incidence of pre-existing mental illnesses, suicide, and self-harm, as well as the linkages between suicide, deteriorating mental health and re-offending behaviour.

During the third wave, a total of eighty-eight staff employees and ninety-nine inmates tested positive for Covid-19, between December and January according to information obtained by ‘The Print’. Due to a lack of facilities and an upsurge in the number of cases, sixteen pharmacies had to be converted into covid care units. In spite of the decongestion of the jails according to the court rulings, the impact of COVID-19 has been devastating, because of the humongous amount of people still locked up.

CONCLUSION

Human rights belong to everyone, including those who have committed crimes, because they do not cease to be humans after being accused or found guilty, and so are allowed to live a life of dignity both in jail and after being acquitted. The goals of imprisonment are crime prevention, rehabilitation, and justice to the wronged, to deter and rehabilitate an individual. All of this cannot be achieved as long as the prisoners’ basic rights are denied. The Supreme Court panel recommended several prison reforms, taking into account the various issues faced by Indian prisons and their prisoners, to enhance their conditions. It should be acted upon urgently by the respective authorities. The laws must be enacted for the sole purpose of the welfare of prisoners, and also, the proper functioning of the present rules and regulations in this regard should be actively supervised. Strict action should be taken against those who misuse their powers to curb police brutality against prisoners, and progressive and productive activities should be undertaken in jails to reform prisoners, as this is the very reason for awarding punishments and imprisonment, which goes in line with the famous saying, “kill the crime and not the criminal.” In the end, To sum up, all humans are deserving of basic humanity, and human rights are universal in nature, so prisons possess no authority to strip a person of their human rights. As is our obligation to humanity, proper procedures and actions must be taken to correct the inequities of prison institutions.