Chennai: A latest report by National Crime Records Bureau says Tamilnadu has lodged the highest number of detainees (1,240) accounting to 39 per cent of the total 3,183 in the country.
According to the data of Prison Statistics – 2019, Gujarat comes next in the tally, with a total of 698 detainees, followed by Jammu & Kashmir with 373. It also said the number of inmates in prisons in India has increased over the past one year.
The data showed that jails across India remained overcrowded in 2019, lodging 4.78 lakh prisoners against the actual capacity of 4.03 lakh. Prisons were also under-staffed, with a sanctioned strength of 87,599 personnel, while the actual strength was 60,787 as on 31 December, 2019.
The NCRB said, “During the year 2019, a total of 18,86,092 inmates were admitted in various jails of the country. The number of convicts, undertrial inmates and detenues were reported at 1.44 lakh, 3.30 lakh and 3,223 respectively accounting for 30.11%, 69.05% and 0.67% respectively at the end of 2019. Other prisoners accounted for 0.2% (765) of total prisoners.”