For convicted prisoners, Open Jail system ‘missing’ in J&K UT

VISHAL. Updated: 2/25/2021 10:26:24 AM Front Page

Jammu: While the Article 21 of Indian Constitution states ‘Right To Life And Personal Liberty’ under which no person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law and this right is given to the prisoners but unfortunately the prisons across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have no open jail system especially for the convicted prisoners.

As per reports, convicted prisoners with good behaviour, satisfying certain norms prescribed in the prison rules are lodged in open prisons and minimum security is kept in such prisons and prisoners are engaged in agricultural activities.

Official sources said that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is among States and Union Territories across the country having no Open Jails like other parts including Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

“The Prison Statistics India 2019 report released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has mentioned that open jails are special Jails that exclusively confines only convicted prisoners,” said an official adding that the report also stated that only 17 States have reported about the functioning of open jails in their jurisdiction.

The states like Rajasthan have reported the highest number of 29 open jails followed by Maharashtra (19), Madhya Pradesh (6), Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (3 each).

“The remaining 10 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana and Uttarakhand have one Open Jail each,” they revealed.

They further said that the UT of J&K has a total of 15 Jails as on December 31, 2019, adding, “there were 1,350 Jails across the country. Rajasthan has the high number (144 out of 1,350) of jails among the States/UTs followed by Tamil Nadu (141), Madhya Pradesh (131), Andhra Pradesh (106) Karnataka (104) and Odisha (91).”

These six states together cover 53.11 percent of total jails in the country as on December 31, 2019.

Sources said that in the recent years a new form of prison system came into existence known as open or semi open prison system in India and like the name suggests prisoners are not locked up in the traditional jail settings as seen in real or reel life but they are put up in settings where they are not often locked up in their cells and are allowed to work in prison or outside prisons to earn a living.

“These types of jails are for offenders who are considered low risk to people. Usually they have committed petty offences or were present at a crime scene. This often results that the person is charged with wrong allegations,” they expressed.

As far as the number of convicts in J&K UT jails is concerned, sources said that their strength is 209 whereas the strength of under-trials in J&K UT as on December 31, 2019 is 3575.

“The capacity of prisons in J&K is 2910 as on December 31, 2019 while the total available capacity of all the prisons in the country is 4,03,739,” sources said.

The total inmate population in J&K UT prisons is 3689.

Overall, total 4,78,600 prisoners as on December 31, 24319 were confined in various jails across the country.

“Only 17 states have reported about the functioning of open jails in India. There are currently 69 open jails. The highest numbers are in Rajasthan with 29 jails and Maharashtra with 13 jails,” sources added and said that in Rajasthan more than 2,000 prisoners of 29 jails work as accountants, school teachers, guards and domestic help and these are the people who serve their sentence for offences like murder, theft and trespassing.

Open jail system can help in reducing overcrowding in jails allow prisoners to find employment, operational cost is reduced, helps in self-development and socialization.
Updated On 2/25/2021 10:26:57 AM


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