Friday, 23 February 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The prisons across the State are currently holding inmates more than double their capacity. The State’s prisons have the capacity to hold only 3,461 inmates but 6,603 inmates are currently lodged in these prisons. This was revealed by the Prison Headquarters under the Right to Information Act (RTI) query by the RTI activist and advocate Nadeem Uddin. He said that according to the data provided under the RTI Act, there are 354 inmates in the Almora district prison that can hold only 102 inmates.
The Dehradun district prison currently has 1,499 inmates that can hold only 580 inmates. Besides this, 170 inmates are lodged in the Nainital district prison which can hold only 71 inmates. The Haridwar district prison with a capacity of 888 inmates currently holds 1,340 inmates. Pauri district prison with 150 capacity has 168 inmates. The sub district prison in Haldwani with 550 capacity has 1,502 inmates. The Roorkee sub district prison has 439 inmates against the capacity of holding 244. The Central Prison in Sitarganj with 805 capacity currently holds 552 inmates.
Nadeem said that there are only two prisons in the State that hold fewer inmates than their capacity which are Sampoornanand Shivir (Open prison) in Sitarganj which holds only convicted inmates and Chamoli district prison. The Sampoornanand prison with a 300 capacity has only 48 inmates and the Chamoli district prison has 128 inmates against the capacity of 169. He said that overcrowding in prisons is a violation of the constitutional and human rights of the inmates. He said that the government should consider considering the construction of new prisons in other cities and towns across the State to tackle this issue. The inmates can also be kept in open prisons. These ways will save the government’s money as well as protect the human rights of inmates.
