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Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 17 (EMN): The department of Prisons, which was introduced during the British Raj in the 1940’s, is one of the oldest government institutions in Nagaland.
The official website of the department states that the first prison, ‘Kohima jail,’ was opened by the then British government.
According to the website, Nagaland has 11 functional jails covering ten districts in the state. The central jail in Dimapur is the largest and the only central jail in Nagaland, established in the year 1965.
A statistical data of prison from across the country was published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in September 2019.
According to the NCRB report, the statistics were collected from 2017. The data collection, including clarifications from states/union territories (UTs) of the department of Prisons, started from February 2019 and continued till September 2019.
The report shows that Nagaland along with eight other states/UTs had no sub-jails as of December 31, 2017.
Interestingly, the ‘sub-jail,’ as identified by most of the citizens located in Oriental colony in Dimapur, is said to have been upgraded to a 'district jail'.
The Director General of Prisons, Toshitsungba Aier (IPS) in telephonic conversation with Eastern Mirror clarified that the sub-jail located in Dimapur was upgraded to a district jail after Dimapur became a district.
Among the 4,50,696 prisoners, the literacy profile shows that a total of 1,36,167 (30.2%) were illiterate. While 1 81 248 (40.2%) prisoners were below high school and 92,277 (20.5%) were below graduation level. 27,561 (6.1%) prisoners had bachelor degrees while 7,896 (1.8%) were postgraduates. 5,547 (1.2%) prisoners were technical diploma/degree holders.
The report also showed that more than 90% of the inmates were illiterate and undergraduates, ‘indicating that education play an important role towards a person’s involvement in criminal activities’.
The statistics further revealed that the total number of prisons nationally has decreased from 1,401 in 2015 to 1,361 in 2017 after Maharashtra reported that 57 sub-jails were closing down.
Altogether, there are 1,361 different types of prison in the country. It consists of 666 sub-jails, 405 district jails, 142 central jails, 64 open jails, 41 specials jails, 22 women jails, 19 borstal schools and two other jails.
The highest number of prisons were reported in Tamil Nadu with as many as 138; and New Delhi with the highest number of central jails with 14.
Uttar Pradesh has 60 district jails making it the highest in the country while Tamil Nadu topped with 96 sub-jails in the country.
Capacity of prisons
The report for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, show that in India, the actual capacity of prisons increased from 3,66,781 in 2015 to 3,91,574 in 2017 (as of December 31 each year). The central jails occupy the highest capacity of inmates followed by the district jails.
While the number of prisoners lodged in various jails has increased from 4,19,623 in 2015 to 4,50,696 in 2017, out of the total prisoners, 4,31,823 were male and 18,873 were female.
The report shows that the occupancy rate for the year 2017 was more with 115.1%, followed by 2015 with 114.4% and 113.7% in the year 2016. The total number of prisons at national level had decreased from 1,401 in 2015 to 1,361 in 2017.
In the year 2015, out of 4,19,623 prisoners, 6,620 were foreign prisoners while in the year 2016, out of 4,33,003 prisoners, 6,370 were foreign nationals. And in the year 2017, out of 4,50,696, 4,917 were foreigners. Hence, showing a decline in the number of inmates of foreign nationality.
Among the foreign convicts, the highest number were from Bangladesh with 63%; followed by Nepal with 12.7% of convicts.
Among the convicts under IPC crimes, 1,02,535 inmates comprising of around 84% from various jails committed offences affecting body; and 14,243 inmates comprising of around 11.7% of convicts committed offences against property.
The highest number of inmates were convicted for murder (70,170 convicts) followed by convicts of rape (10,892).
While among the convicts of offences against women, the highest number of inmates was convicted for rape with as many as 10,892 convicts.
And among the convicts under special and local law (SLL) crimes, 16,866 convicts were lodged in various jails across the country where 9,637 individuals were convicted under liquor and narcotic drugs related Acts.