For years, under-trial prisoners have outnumbered convicted persons in Indian prisons. But now the National Crime Records Bureau’s report, Prison Statistics India: 2020, shows that under-trial prisoners and detainees — those arrested but not under trial — make up over 75 per cent of the total number of inmates. Between 2015 and 2020, there has been a decrease of 15.5 per cent of convicts while those awaiting trial have increased by 31.3 per cent and detainees by 40.6 per cent. This rise must be seen in the context of repeated Supreme Court rulings — the first being in March 2020 — regarding the importance of decongesting prisons to protect the right to life and health of inmates and staff during the pandemic. Interim bail or parole for those whose offences call for imprisonment up to seven years would reduce overcrowding. The court directed the formation of high-powered committees in each state to decide on parole, with an eye to age and comorbidity. Funnily enough, the NCRB report indicates that compared to 2019, the release of convicts and under-trial prisoners declined in 2020, while the number of detainees and under-trial prisoners increased. So what did the HPCs do? The Supreme Court asked them for the parameters they use for the release of inmates in May 2021, and directed in July that those given parole the previous year should not be asked to surrender, but the parole period extended.

But humanity is seldom discernible in the law-enforcing arms of the State. That more than 70 per cent of under-trial prisoners and detainees are from marginalized classes, castes and minority religions may say something about institutionalized attitudes. The rules instituted by prisons to control the spread of the virus destroyed all transparency. Custodial deaths increased by 7.0 per cent in 2020 and accidental deaths — suicide and murder included — by 18.1 per cent. Meanwhile, it would seem from the rising tide of arrests for violation of lockdown rules that the court had not spoken. Under-trial prisoners were also unable to go to court or meet their lawyers, while the judicial process slowed down because of the pandemic. Far from addressing these problems with practical solutions, governments and HPCs exhibited an attitude that can at best be termed callous. It is absurd to talk of changes and reforms when bail remains the exception and incarceration the rule even during the most acute crisis.