Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

February 22, 2023

India: Illiterate once, Ajmer jail inmates now write letters

News

Asia Material conditions India

Ensuring that illiterate prisoners return home as educated people is the motto of this social reform programme in jails

January 11, 2023

India: Delhi HC says undertrial prisoners can’t be detained in custody for an indefinite period

News

Asia Justice India

The court says the object of jail is neither ‘punitive nor preventive’ and that deprivation of liberty is considered a punishment.

November 28, 2022

India: prisoners on life term can be freed after 14 years

News

Asia Justice India

The Pushkar Singh Dhami-led state cabinet on Monday gave its approval to a home (prison) department proposal that recommends release of prisoners serving life imprisonment after completing a 14 years’ jail term on the grounds of good conduct.

November 8, 2022

India: Supreme Court reprieve for mentally ill man on death row

News

Asia Mental health India

Taking into account the plight of a condemned prisoner who became mentally-ill after being kept in the solitary confinement for more than 10 years, the Supreme Court on Friday commuted his sentence to 30 years’ jail term without remission.

March 24, 2022

India: State extends jail term for those found using cell phone in prison

News

Asia Justice India

Prisoners using prohibited articles inside the jail are imposed imprisonment of six months and fine not exceeding Rs 200.

January 18, 2022

India: detention conditions of people sentenced to death

Analysis

Asia Access to legal rights Material conditions Death penalty Torture Social ties India

Most prisoners sentenced to death in India have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment during their judicial process. This can take several years given the duration of the procedures.

October 12, 2021

India: ‘Prison To Pride’, Yerwada Central Jail To Soon Launch Sports Training For Prisoners

News

Asia Activities India

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has appointed expert coaches to train players from Yerwada Central Jail.

October 12, 2021

India: death rate up, jails to get ‘suicide watchers’

News

Asia Suicide India

The Punjab Prisons is training a unique squad of “suicide watchers” as a study of suicides between 2017 and 2019 found that nearly 42 per cent of the victims died by suicide within a month of incarceration. Fifteen per cent could not last even 48 hours in jail.

September 10, 2021

India: rules laid down to prevent inmate suicide in jail

News

Asia Mental health Suicide India

Superintendents of jails have been asked to conduct an environmental audit in jail to find aout vulnerable places and articles that may help inmates commit suicide and take immediate preventive measures.

June 8, 2021

India: remote hearings and the rights of accused persons

Analysis Opinion

Coronavirus Asia Access to legal rights India

ICPR and Prison Insider asked several experts worldwide to share their insights in the framework of the project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in 10 countries’. Madhurima Dhanuka discusses the impact of remote hearings on fair trials.

May 3, 2021

India: almost all jails in Maharashtra overcrowded, prison officials struggle to enforce ‘equitable distribution’

News

Coronavirus Asia Material conditions Overcrowding India

In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, all jails, including Mumbai Central, Thane, Taloja, Kalyan, Byculla and Byculla women’s jail, are overcrowded.

March 30, 2021

Inde : Covid et prison, la vie carcérale pour ces femmes oubliées de la pandémie

News

Coronavirus Women Asia Material conditions India

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

March 23, 2021

India: Maharashtra prison dept starts vaccination for inmates at Arthur Road Jail

News

Coronavirus Asia India

Maharashtra prison department has started Covid-19 vaccination drive for the inmates at Arthur Road Jail or Mumbai Central Prison.

February 24, 2021

India: misgendering, sexual violence, what it is to be a transgender in a prison

News

Asia LGBTQI Violence India

The Wire’s Sukanya finds how the transgender community faced physical and sexual violence in Indian prisons, and their complaints overlooked by the authorities.

February 15, 2021

India: after 70 years, Rajasthan amends prison manual that sanctioned caste-based labour

News

Culture Asia Access to legal rights Justice Activities Religion India

The move comes nearly two months after The Wire’s report had exposed conditions of institutionalised casteism in prisons of Rajasthan and several other states in India.

February 2, 2021

India: "they don’t even look at us as humans. How can we expect them to protect us from the virus?"

News

Coronavirus Asia Health Material conditions India

As Covid paroles end, convicts returning to complete life sentences in the same barrack recount six months of horror, delayed testing, overcrowded living conditions and degrading treatment by jail staff. Karan Tripathi reports.

December 22, 2020

India: from segregation to labour, Manu’s caste law governs the prison system

News

Culture Women Asia Access to legal rights Justice Religion Work India

In several states, prison manuals still dictate that labour within the prison should be assigned on the basis of caste.

December 8, 2020

India: NCRB to include transpersons as separate category in prison statistics, Delhi HC told

News

Coronavirus Women Asia Access to legal rights Justice India

Additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma told the Delhi HC that the NCRB will include transgender in the gender classification of prisoners in their annual publication of prison statistics 2020.

April 6, 2020

India: Kerala government counts losses as COVID-19 scare hits sale of prison food

News

Coronavirus Asia Health India

Food production units were set up in prisons by 2012, with skilled inmates preparing food for public sale. However, the outbreak of Covid-19 has thrown a spanner in the works.

March 11, 2020

India: Coimbatore prison inmates to grow sugarcane

News

Asia Work India

COIMBATORE: As part of a series of efforts aimed to encourage agriculture activity among prison inmates, Coimbatore central prison authorities have planned to begin sugarcane cultivation at Open Air Jail (OAJ) campus in Ondipudur.

February 5, 2020

India: prison system needs urgent reform

News

Women Asia Foreign prisoners Health Overcrowding India

The 2018 statistics on prison must spur the criminal justice system to assess, evaluate and take affirmative steps.

February 5, 2020

India: prison rule stands in way of quick hanging

News

Asia Justice Death penalty India

NEW DELHI: A proviso in the revised 2018 Delhi Prison Manual now stands between the timely execution of the four Nirbhaya convicts on February 1 and the possibility of a further delay.

January 3, 2020

India: Kerala capital gets first beauty parlour run by inmates of Poojapura Central Prison

News

Asia Work India

The initiative is part of the various rehabilitation programmes taken up by the Prison Department for the prisoners.

January 2, 2020

India: Shivamogga central prison to soon get digital library

News

Culture Asia India

The Central Prison in Shivamogga will soon have a digital library on its campus. The jail is already home to a library which has a collection of over 10,000 books.