1 out of every 4 under trial Prisoner is under detention for more than a year
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 31, 2016
As per the recently released ‘Prison Statistics India 2015 report, more than 70000 under trial prisoners are under detention for more than a year. In Jammu & Kashmir, more than half of the under trial prisoners are under detention for more than 5 years.
More than 3.1 crore cases are pending in various courts of the country as of 31 March, 2016. Many of these cases are pending for more than a year and more than a crore of these are criminal cases. The Prison Statistics India 2015 report (PSI 2015) also substantiates the pendency of a large number of cases.  There are a total of 4.19 lakh jail inmates in the country by the end of 2015 out of which 2.82 lakh are under trial prisoners. More than 70,000 (25%) of the under trial prisoners have been under detention for more than a year.
Most under trial prisoners in Uttar Pradesh
As expected, the highest number of under trial prisoners (62669) are in Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar (23424). Four (4) states have more than 20000 under trial prisoners each while eleven (11) states have more than 10000 under trial prisoners each.
Delhi has most under trial prisoners per Lakh Population
If the population is taken into consideration, the All-India average for number of under trial prisoners per lakh population is 23.3. Delhi with 64.94 has the most number of under trial prisoners per lakh population. Punjab is in the second place with 47.09 followed by Haryana with 41.37. In the top 10 are Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar. Thirteen (13) States/UTs have more under trial prisoners per lakh population compared to the All-India average. Of the states with more than 1500 under trial prisoners, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana have least number of under trial prisoners per lakh population with 9.93 and 10.01 respectively.
More than half the under trial prisoners in J&K are under detention for more than a year
Of all the under trial prisoners, more than 25% are under detention for more than a year at an All-India level. 35.2% of the under trial prisoners have been under detention for up to 3 months. Of all the States/UTs with more than 1500 under trial prisoners, 55.2% in Jammu & Kashmir are under detention for more than a year. In Gujarat, 39.8% are under detention for more than a year. More than 30% of the under trial prisoners are under detention for more than a year in 10 States/UTs. Of the states with more than 1500 under trial prisoners, only 3% are under detention for more than a year in Telangana. In Jammu & Kashmir, 9.5% of the under trial prisoners are under detention for more than 5 years while in Gujarat, 3.5% are under detention for more than 5 years. In Kerala, 62.8% of the under trial prisoners are under detention for up to 3 months, the highest for any state. In Tripura & Telangana, 62.2% and 61.4% of the under trial prisoners are under detention for up to 3 months respectively.
Featured Image: Prisons in India