5-Feb-2020: Supreme Court panel recommends several prison reforms

A Supreme Court-appointed committee to reform prisons has given out several recommendations.

• Every new prisoner should be allowed a free phone call a day to his family members to see him through his first week in jail.
• The court said overcrowding is a common bane in the under-staffed prisons. Both the prisoner and his guard equally suffer human rights violations.
• The undertrial prisoner, who is yet to get his day in court, suffers the most, languishing behind bars for years without a hearing.
• Speedy trial remains one of the best ways to remedy the unwarranted phenomenon of over-crowding.
• It said that the Prison Department has a perennial average of 30%-40% vacancies. The shortage has lingered over the years.
• Another recommendation is for the use of video-conferencing for trial.
• Physical production in courts continued, which however remains far below the aspired 100% in several States, mainly because of unavailability of sufficient police guards for escort and transportation.
• The report described the preparation of food in kitchens as primitive and arduous. The kitchens are congested and unhygienic and the diet has remained unchanged for years now.

Background: The court had, in September 2018, appointed the Justice Roy Committee to examine the various problems plaguing prisons, from overcrowding to lack of legal advice to convicts to issues of remission and parole. Besides Justice Roy, a former Supreme Court judge, the members include an IG, Bureau of Police Research and Development, and the DG (Prisons), Tihar Jail. The decision was in reaction to a letter written by former Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti highlighting the overcrowding of prisons, unnatural deaths of prisoners, gross inadequacy of staff and the lack of trained staff.