Assam’s district jails face severe overcrowding with 117.6% occupancy rate

Guwahati, Oct 12: Overcrowding in the jails of Assam has become a major issue in recent years and the problem is more serious for the male inmates.

The overall occupancy rate in the prisons located in the State stood at 105.3 per cent as on December 31, 2023, as per latest official data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It has increased substantially since 2018 when Assam’s jails recorded an occupancy rate of only 93.2 per cent.

The inmate population in the 31 jails of Assam was 10,652 at the end of 2023, as against an available capacity of 10,120.

There are a total of 31 prisons in the State. These include six central jails and 22 district jails, besides one sub-jail, open jail, and special jail each.

The total available capacity for males in all the prisons of the State combined was 9,341 as on December 31, 2023, while the inmate population numbered 10,247. This translates to an occupancy rate of 109.7 per cent.

On the other hand, the available capacity for female inmates was 779, while the inmate population at the end of that year stood at 405, resulting in an occupancy rate of only 52 per cent.

In the six central jails of Assam, the inmate population on the last day of 2023 was 4,213 compared to a total capacity of 4,490. This put the occupancy rate at 93.8 per cent.

In the 22 district jails, however, the problem of overcrowding was more serious.

The district jails had an inmate population of 5,904, compared to a total capacity of 5,020, with an occupancy rate as high as 117.6 per cent.

Likewise, there were as many as 459 inmates in the only special jail of Assam during the year under review, as against the total capacity of 442. The occupancy rate in the special jail was 103.8 per cent as on December 31, 2023.

The inmate population of the solitary sub-jail in Assam was 57 at the end of 2023 while its total capacity was 68, which resulted in an occupancy rate of 83.8 per cent.

The open jail had an inmate population of 19 as against a capacity of 100 with the occupancy rate being only 19 per cent.

Overall across the country, the occupancy rate in prisons on the last day of 2023 was 120.8 per cent, which was higher than the figure of 117.6 per cent reported at the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, among the other north-eastern States, the occupancy rate in the jails of Nagaland was only 39.7 per cent, while in Tripura it was 56.6 per cent at the end of 2023.

Occupancy stood at 46.1 per cent in Manipur, 141.2 per cent in Mizoram, 94 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh, and 188.7 per cent in Meghalaya.

In addition, the jails in Assam reported the presence of 70 foreign inmates as on December 31 of the year under review. Of them, seven were convicts and 63 were under-trials.

Among the foreign convicts, all seven were from Bangladesh. With regard to foreign under-trials, 34 were from Bangladesh, 20 hailed from Myanmar, one was from Nigeria, one was from a North American country, and seven were other foreign nationals, as per the data.