Over 1800 prisoners died in past 5 yrs in UP jails

  • | Thursday | 14th March, 2019

AGRA: An RTI query has revealed that in the last five years more than 1800 prisoners died in Uttar Pradesh . In 8 jails of Agra range, 261 inmates died in this period. Of these, 409 prisoners died in 2016, followed by 399 in 2017. Over five times more prisoners were in Lalitpur and Moradabad district jails, according to the assessment made in September 2018. This means the authorities took no effective action to mitigate the inhuman conditions prisoners had to live in.

AGRA: An RTI query has revealed that in the last five years more than 1800 prisoners died in Uttar Pradesh . The highest number of deaths, 119, was recorded in Bareilly district jail followed by 113 in Fatehpur district jail. In 8 jails of Agra range, 261 inmates died in this period. In several prisons, as compared to their capacity, twice the number of inmates were lodged. Over five times more prisoners were in Lalitpur and Moradabad district jails, according to the assessment made in September 2018. Besides the problem of overcrowding, dozens of posts of doctors, pharmacists, lab and X-ray technicians are lying vacant in 70 jails.Appalled by the numbers of deaths in prisons, senior lawyer KC Jain, who filled the RTI application, is writing to governor Ram Naik and CM Yogi Adityanath to take up the matter.According to the response given by state prisons administration and reform services department to the RTI query (a copy of which is with TOI), a total of 1,848 prisoners died in a period of 60 months from January 2013 to December 2017. Of these, 409 prisoners died in 2016, followed by 399 in 2017. In 2013 the number of deaths was 357. In 2014 and 2015 a total of 683 people died.Jain said, “It is shocking to know that till December 31, 2017 total 96,383 inmates were lodged in 62 prisons with capacity of only 58,400. The average overcrowding was 1.65 times. According to the assessment made in September 2018, overcrowding increased to 1.78 times. This means the authorities took no effective action to mitigate the inhuman conditions prisoners had to live in. The Lalitpur and Moradabad district jail had over 5 times overcrowding.”The RTI query has also revealed major shortage of staff especially for medical care and reform services for prisoners. As compared to approved 145 posts of medical officers in 70 prisons, only 110 were on duty till September 30, 2018. Besides 73 out of 141 posts of pharmacists, 27 out of 29 posts of X-ray technicians, 25 out of 28 posts of lab technicians and majority of the posts of teachers were vacant.Jain said, “The main objective of the prison system is to ensure secure detention of prisoners, help in their rehabilitation and integration into the mainstream of society, and to ensure that they do not turn towards crime after their release, by providing them moral education and vocational training. But this is largely not happening in UP. Prisoners are forced to live like animals. Their basic human rights are being violated.”Talking to TOI, inspector general of prisons Chandra Prakash said, “Death reported to old age and illness is quite normal and inevitable. The prison administration and state government has taken several initiatives to improve the overall situations in prisons. New barracks are being developed in different jails as part of the capacity building plan. Shortage of work force in all ranks is a problem we are trying to sort out on priority basis. Request for recruitments has already been sent to the state government. To bring down suicides by inmates, we are trying to de-stress them by organizing sports, yoga and spiritual sessions. Orders have been given for installation of TVs in prisons. I have asked superintendents to identify prisoners not behaving normally and ensure their psychological counseling.”

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