Jails in various districts of the state are plagued with the problem of overcrowding with a total prison population of 83,805 against the authorised capacity of 44,439,an RTI plea has revealed. Urvashi Sharma,an activist,filed the RTI plea following the National Human Rights Commissions recent report observing that overcrowding in jail was a result of unnecessary and unjustified arrests coupled with slow judicial process. Admitting that the overall overcrowding ratio is 1.89,the information released by the department of Jail Administration and Reform Services indicates that in majority of the jails the occupancy is almost double the sanctioned strength. According to the status as on December 31,2009,the worst scenario is at the Moradabad district jail where around 2,274 prisoners are housed against the sanctioned strength of only 605. At the time when the records were released,Moradabad jail housed around 2,080 undertrials and 194 convicts. Similar was the plight at Shahjahanpur district jail where 1,791 prisoners were kept against a capacity of 511. Of the 53 district jails in the state,majority had double the sanctioned inmates. But the only exception was Mau district jail where only 485 criminals have been housed as against the capacity of 540. Interestingly,the Etah district jail,which received the coveted ISO: 9001 (2000) certification last year,has around 1,339 inmates as against the capacity of 607 prisoners. In the central jails,which are supposed to admit lifers and prisoners who are serving long sentences,the occupancy ratio was no better. In the five central jails of the state as many as 13,298 criminals were lodged against the capacity of 7,037. While Naini,Varanasi,Fatehgarh and Agra Central jail records showed almost double the occupancy,Bareily Central Jail had more than two criminals lodged against one. The picture at special jails is far better than that of Central or district jails. In Model Jail,only 371 prisoners were housed against a capacity of 600 while in Nari Bandi Niketan,143 women convicts were lodged as against the sanctioned strength of 420. Overall,2,759 women were shown to be lodged in different jails. At Kishore Sadan,Bareily,the only jail in Uttar Pradesh for children with a capacity of 188,only six children were housed as on December 31,2009. In the other jails,however,96 children were shown to be living with women who were convicted. Also,as many as 182 foreigners were also shown to be lodged in different jails of the state. The reply under the RTI failed to answer another important question raised in the plea concerning the details of convicts serving jail terms despite completing their sentences decreed by court. In a reply filed by K B Joshi,Research Officer,department of Jail Administration and Reform Services,the department asked for more time on the pretext of collecting the relevant data. I have filed the first appeal requesting to provide the data as early as possible, said Urvashi Sharma.
