The document discusses issues facing India's criminal justice system, particularly related to under-trial prisoners. It notes that 64.7% of pending criminal cases relate to under-trials, leading to overcrowded prisons and human rights violations. Suggestions are made to address ineffective identification and classification of prisoners, infrastructure inadequacies, outdated prison manuals, and issues with bail provisions. A framework is proposed focusing on logistical and procedural reforms, improving prison administration and accountability, and changing to view prisoners as humans requiring rehabilitation rather than just punishment. Overall the aim is to provide timely, expeditious justice to under-trials while respecting their fundamental rights.
1. Citizens' Appeal: Ensuring expeditious and
timely justice to all
Establishing an effective criminal justice system
with emphasis on Under-trial prisoners
TEAM
Group Coordinator: Arpita Mitra
Members: Quratulain Mushtaque, Aishwarya Khanna,
Deepali Dutta, Navdeep Kaur
2. It is a matter of deep concern that the bulk of cases pending (nearly 60 to 65
percent), relate to criminal matters, with a staggering proportion of 64.7 percent
of under-trials cases, resultant issue of overcrowded prisons and human rights
violation at multiple levels.
As per prison statistics of National
Crime Bureau, total capacity of Jails in
the country: 3,32,782; Total Number
of Jail Inmates as on 31.12.2011 :
3,72,926. The number of under-trial
prisoners has increased by 0.5% in
2011 (2,41,200) over 2010 (2,40,098).
However, a staggering number of
under-trials are imprisoned for a
longer term than even the most
rigorous sentence would have ever
been.
Source: http://ncrb.gov.in/PSI-2011/Graphs-2011.pdf
3. In our attempt to hypothesize, these crucial issues within the ambit of
criminal justice finds focus and emphasis of the subsequent analysis
Ineffective identification and lack of adequate institutional arrangement of/for under-trial prisoners:
Pertaining to classification of under-trial prisoners from previously existing hardened criminals,
especially in the case of juvenile delinquents and other categories of prisoners to appropriate
channelize prison reforms.
Infrastructural inadequacy and lack of institutionalization to promote demarcation of various
categories of prisoners, considering a backlog of 35,000 cases with the Supreme Court of India,
350,000 with the high courts and over 25 million with the subordinate courts.
2. Inapplicability of archaic provisions as part of Prison Manuals without adequate revisions as per
the subject to present circumstances
- Understanding the context in which the crime takes place, the larger sociological parameters and
trends of nature of crime to be recognized before law can be formulated and implemented.
Concept of Human rights violation and lack of recognition of the inalienable rights of prisoners; in
relation to implementation to various welfare schemes pertaining to them (such as pre-natal, post-
natal care for pregnant prisoners), together with denial of Acts and Constitutional Provisions. For
instance Section 437(6) is to be enacted to prevent this and makes it mandatory for a person to be
released on bail where the trial has not concluded within 60 days from the first date fixed for taking
evidence. Section 436-A20 which spells out the right of an under-trial prisoner to apply for bail once
she/he has served one half of the maximum term of sentence she/he would have served had she/he
been convicted.
4. 4.
Inadequacies and
underutilization in/of Bail
Provisions:
Inaccessibility due to
monetary-financial crisis.
they are found to rot in
prisons due to exorbitantly
high bail amount. The
hierarchy of courts and with
appeals after appeal have
led to a situation where the
poor cannot reach the
temple of justice due to
heavy cost of its access. In
other words one can state
that granting justice at a
higher cost indirectly means
the denial of justice. Such
circumstances lead to a clear
violation of the Supreme
Court judgment which held,
legal aid to a poor is a
constitutional mandate not
only by virtue of Article 39A
but also Articles 14, 19, 21
which cannot be denied by
the government
5.
Lack of Accountability and
Objective criteria for
Prison Management
In terms of the debate
between concern of Prison
and Prisoners as a State
subject vs the prerogative
of the Centre to ensure
accountability on a larger
level.
In terms of Prison
administration: Prison
authorities and their
responsibility to ensure
decentralization of work
and responsibility to
ensure justice even inside
the prisons, undermining
which promote physical
abuse and custodial
violence and death for the
under-trial prisoners- who
are subjected to a form of
brutality that the law
doesn’t recognize as
‘being deserved’.
6.
Objective/ Outlook of
Prison and Judicial
provisions in criminal
cases
Faulty understanding of
emphasis on ‘punitive’
aspect, and not the
concept of rehabilitation
and reformation of the
prisoner
Denies existence of a
prisoner as a human being
“A huge majority of under-trial prisoners are poor, who have no lawyers, access to
adequate medical care and thereby subjected to torture and exploitation”
5. Proposed suggestions
•Pertaining to
involvement of
the prisoner in
her/his
concerned
case
•Suggestive
element as to
how to ensure
speedy justice
procedurally
Logistical and
Procedural
• Awareness/Knowledge of the
prisoner about the welfare
schemes s/he is eligible to
avail, specially pertaining to
women prisoners and
juvenile delinquents
• Rights of the Prisoner, for the
contestation and deliberation
happens over her/his crime,
which should be delinked
with the person’s
individualistic identity in
relation to the social- as a
human being having the right
to access their inalienable
rights- especially right to Life.
• Clarity in institutional
structures dealing directly
with under-trial pending
cases.
• Resolving debate
concerning Prisons as a
State subject vs Centre’s
concern. Ultimately these
indivuals can determine
both favourable and
unfavourable situations for
the community as a whole.
• Proper registration and
record-keeping in regard to
under-trial prisoners: seek
transparency
• Ensuring legal rights of
prisoners and Right to Plea
Bargaining.
• Court proceedings, video-
conferencing facility to be
introduced.
•Community
awareness and
community
involvement
•Understanding
context of crime
•Under-trial prisoners
be offered with
stimulating activities
and vocational
training- role of NGOs
have been crucial.
Administration and
accountability
Identification and Access
to Legal-social rights
Coping mechanism
and change in outlook
6. Logistical and Procedural Approach to modifying the present setup for under-
trial prisoners (Identification)
1.
•Ensure separation of the following categories of prisoners: a) Women (b) Young offenders (c) Under-trials (d)
Convicts (e) Civil prisoners (f) Detenues (g) high security prisoners, for more systematic processes to avail
welfare schemes.
2.
•Use of Technology: For first time offenders especially, and under-trial prisoners who await their case to be
deliberated in the continuous Court proceedings, video-conferencing facility to be introduced. Already
experimented in Tihar/ Rohini Jails, it seeks to strengthen prison security, save manpower-equipment-and
transportation.
3.
•Recommending application and implementation of ‘Committee on Rationalization of Classification of
Prisoners’ (1997), suggesting a set of categories by which prisoners should be segregated: Gender, Convicts,
Under-trials, Age, Nature of Crime, Previous history, Prison term, Kind of sentence awarded and so on
4.
•Instituting the Mulla Committee Report to avoid redundancy in existing Prison Manual provisions, and
update provisions as per the change in context. Under-trial prisoners should be lodged in separate
institutions away from convicted prisoners. There should be proper and classification even among under-
trial prisoners to ensure that contamination of first time and petty offenders into full fledged and hardened
criminals does not take place
5.
• Bail Amount Management: Systematic implementation of Sections 107-10 of the Criminal
Procedure Code, whereby it states how a prohibitive bail amount should be replaced by a token
bail amount, accounting for poverty as an impediment to seek justice
7. Prison Administrative System
Prison Administrative System
Examining people who administer
prisons
Need for implementation of an
already existing law: to create a
Board which is expected to meet a
certain number of times a year, to
facilitate inspection of a certain
number of cases and ensure
submission of report to the
concerned Minister and the
Parliament, which in effect fails to
be implemented
Need for adequate shelter homes and
correctional institutions
Inadequate provisions for juvenile
delinquents, together with reflection
on lack of adequate mechanisms to
record details about the prisoner. A
database is to be framed with specific
focus on children, mentally-challenged
prisoners with special provisions
The executive personnel in
prison i.e. the Superintendents,
Additional Superintendents,
Deputy Superintendents,
Assistant Superintendents and
the guards staff are entrusted
with the primary responsibility
to ensure that the human rights
which the prisoners are entitled
to are not impinged upon and
restricted beyond the limit
inherent in the process of
incarceration itself.
8. Administration and Accountability (Judiciary,
Organizations and the Community)
Alternatives to Imprisonment: Anger management and counseling strategies to be introduced
by courts. Support from Community involvement in relation to organizations and NGOs is
significant in devising coping mechanisms. Special emphasis also remain on non-custodial
strategies to be implemented for women during pregnancy.
Addressing Prisoner’s concerns and complaints through the Prison Grievance Box where they
can write in their issues which must be systematically addressed, even if be on an anonymous
level- due to sensitivity of the content shared.
Change in Outlook- from focus on punitive aspects and punishment to prisoners to prisoner
rehabilitation. This can be combined with incorporation of ideas from models of dealing with
criminal justice, especially in Singapore- The Yellow Ribbon Project takes in account the social
stigma faced by individuals in prisons and employing community involvement to deal with it
Instituting the Mulla Committee Report. Also promoting implementation of some of the
crucial clauses of the Model Prison Manual, with important guarantees essential for
safeguarding the rights of the prisoners: Right to Bail, Institutionalized Mechanism to address
Grievances, Right to living accommodation, hygiene, food-clothing.
Emphasis on legal rights of prisoners and right to Plea Bargaining procedure.
9. Possibilities and hindrances
A major factor determining the potential of this framework
is the establishment of a well-connected, well-networked
system. Financial strains and technological efficiency can
pose a risk to the effective implementation of these ideas.
Also the systematic procedure to even debate upon the
unanimous and obligatory implementation of some of the
modules and Manuals can acquire a lot of time duration and
resources.
However, considering the Judicial system’s attempt to work
on the prospects of increasing efficiency in the arena of
Criminal Justice and Legal reform, the framework proposed
is a plausible option. It takes 15 years on average to conduct
disposition of one case, which is conceived to be reduced to
3 years by 2030.
10. On an overall understanding, the attempt has been to weave a broader definition of
Justice for the under-trial prisoners.
This looks into timely justice and expeditious form of justice- which is routinely and
systematically denied to the under-trial prisoners at multiple levels. The emphasis
remains on not a fast-track court, but fast manner of conducting proceedings that do
not exert pressure on existing institutional structures of the Judiciary, yet at the
same time does not result in overcrowding of prisons with inadequate provisions
together with an observance of denial and ignorance of human inalienable rights.
The approach therefore attempts to identify the importance of a well-coordinated
system and approach to deal with layers of hidden abuse /exploitation alongwith
delayed investigation and delayed trials, Ultimately viewing the issue from multiple
angle and dimensions , specially from the perspective of a prisoner and her/his
experience assist us in the process of establishing an effective criminal system.