...........One can understand the reality of the living conditions of prisoners in India when you read the reports of the Srikrishna Commission on prison reforms, the Shah Commission’s report on the excesses of the Emergency, and some orders of the Supreme Court and NHRC.
As per the report of the National Crime Records Bureau, 2014, of the 4,18,563 prisoners in 1,387 jails in the country, 2,82,879 prisoners were waiting for a judicial enquiry. Nearly 68% of these prisoners had not committed any offence or were involved in petty offences. First time offenders, who committed offence in the flush of youth, were included in this category. They had still not developed into full-fledged criminals. Shouldn’t they be protected before they came into contact with the mafias operating in jails and turned into full-fledged criminals?
If your brother or sister were among these innocents in jail, will you react in the same manner? Is it possible to return the 54 years to Machang mentioned in this article?
Those loving individual liberty should openly debate this matter. It is only then that there can be a slight improvement in the situation.
