Prisoner’s Rights: An In-depth Study on the Prison Infrastructure, Psychological and Physical Health of Prisoners, and Unnatural Deaths in Prison

Abstract

India is a nation with the second highest population in the world with a moderate crime rate, thus naturally, overcrowding in prisons in India has been a prevalent issue since long back. Overcrowding in prison is the result of the slow pace of the judiciary in conducting the criminal procedures. It is evident by the fact that the number of under trial prisoners is more than the number of convicted prisoners. In such a scenario it is of massive importance that the rights of the all prisoners are adequately protected. However, in reality, it is far from being the case. The authors have studied and analysed the prominent issues that arise from a lack of competent ground staff and poor infrastructure within prisons, such as poor mental and physical health among prisoners, corruption among prison officials, and arbitrary activities inside prisons across India. The authors have shown in this paper that how poor infrastructure in prison leads to unnatural deaths in prisons, by analysing the statistics provided by the NCRB. After a thorough analysis of the current scenario of prisons in India, the authors have studied the respective current circumstance in reference to international and UN conventions, as well as human rights. We conducted an in-depth psychological research of the inmates' conditions in the prison, as well as the psychological adversities caused by overcrowding, familial deprivation, dread of the unknown, and isolation.