Is Privatization of Prisons A Solution to Rotting Prisons in India?
Prisons, where lawbreakers are kept, with the sole motive of turning them into a better person, to be able to cop up with and live in the harmonious society. According to Salmond, as society was changing from primitive state to state controlled civilized society, there was a need to keep a check on criminal activities. Thus, to keep a check on criminal activities and maintain peace in a civilized society, prisons were created.
Table of Contents
- Provision of Administration and Management of Prisons
- Present Prison System in India
- Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration
- Reasons for worsening position of Indian prisons
- Under Trial Prisoners
- Limited Budget
- Other Reasons
- Shri Rama Murthy v. State of Karnataka
- Prison system in developed countries
- Pischke v. Litscher
- Academic Centre for Law and Business v. Minister of Finance
- Can privatization work in India?
- Conclusion
Provision of Administration and Management of Prisons
In India, the administration and management of prisons are covered under Schedule 7, List II i.e. State List, Entry 4. The Prisons Act, 1894 which is the oldest legislation dealing and guiding the laws of prison system in India. While, manuals of respective State Governments governs the prison system in India.
Present Prison System in India
While prisoners are kept out of society in order to provide correctional facilities to them, so that they can cope up with the civilized society. However, Supreme Court in the case of Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, clarified position pertaining to the rights of prisoners and held 3 basic grounds lines for prison system viz.:
- A person does not cease to be human, when he is put behind the bars;
- Prisoners are entitled to all the human rights within the limitation of prison system;
- And, there can be no justification in aggravating the already suffering in the process of incarnation.
Supreme Court had to clarified this position, keeping in mind the gross violation of human rights of prisoners in jails.
A recent survey conducted by National Crimes Record Bureau states that the occupancy rate in the Indian prisons have increased from 117.6% to 118.5% between 2018 and 2019. With the increase in the occupancy rate, the budget for the prisons tend to increase as well. However, with state government not increasing the budget of prisons from time to time, the situation of prisons are deteriorating in India.
Reasons for worsening position of Indian prisons
- Under Trial Prisoners: The major reason is overcrowded prisons. And as per NCRB, 69.1% of this occupancy are because of under trial prisoners. Thus, delay in delivery of criminal justice system is one of the contributing factors to the overcrowded jails. Supreme Court in the case of Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary State of Bihar held that speedy trial is part of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guaranteeing life and liberty to the citizen. Even when speedy trial was held to be the fundamental right, today it is one of the most exploited right.
- Limited Budget: Another reason is under-funded prisons. With budget on prisons already on the lower side and with each year the decreasing budget is causing havoc in Indian prisons.
- Other Reasons: Furthermore Supreme Court in the case of Shri Rama Murthy v. State of Karnataka identified problems currently existing in our prison system viz.:
- Overcrowding;
- Delay in trial;
- Torture and ill treatment;
- Deteriorating health and hygiene;
- Insubstantial amount of food and inadequate clothing;
- Deficiency in communication of prisoners with legal help;
- Streamlining process of jails visit;
- Management of open air prisons;
Prison system in developed countries
Privatization of prison system is not a new concept to our civilized society. It traces its origin back to 16th century, when Government of United Kingdom decided to privatize prisons by providing them with stipend in exchange of providing all prisons management services.
The same idea got the US government on its feet, when it decided to privatize prisons in 1980s. However, soon the idea got rejuvenated as US circuit court in the case of Pischke v. Litscher, rejected the idea of private prisons. It held that “We cannot think of any…provision in Constitution that might be violated by the decision of a state to confine a convicted prisoner in a prison owned by a private firm rather than by a government…private exercises of government power are largely immune from constitutional scrutiny…expanding privatization poses a serious threat to the principle of constitutionally accountable government.”
In the famous case of the Academic Centre for Law and Business v. Minister of Finance, courts in Israel even led down the idea of privatization of prisons. The foremost reason stated by the court was that justice should not be administered through the prism of profit. Physical deprivation of citizen’s liberty should not be authorized to the private companies.
Another reason was preferential treatment being given to some inmates, majorly the rich and powerful. This in turn will make citizens lose their trust in the justice system.
Citing another reason being prevention of adequate service being provided to prisoners, in order to increase profit.
Can privatization work in India?
The major problem of privatization process of prisons is the profit factor, which will be a major constituent for the private players. Thus, when profit constituent comes into picture, the situation of prisons will only get worse rather than getting better. While private players would tend to derive profit by providing cheap quality food, inadequate clothing and cheap infrastructure, prisoners’ health and hygiene will be affected the most.
CONCLUSION
Privatization looks good on books. However, when it comes to reality, privatization would even deteriorate the condition of the prisons to a large extent. Thus, privatization of prisons cannot be an option for the Government. The possible options for the Government is to increase the budget of prisons and improve the justice delivery system in India.