India's Prisons at Breaking Point: Overcrowded, Understaffed, and Starved of Healthcare

Time of India

04-05-2025

New Delhi: Dark, dingy, cramped, and gasping for breath. That's how tens of thousands of prisoners are thrown into prison cells, left to suffer in silence. With abysmal hygiene and neglect for healthcare, prisoners are facing their test for basic survival. That is the essence from the latest
India Justice Report 2025
(IJR), which ranks individual Indian states in relation to their capacity to deliver access to justice.
Most of India's prisons are spilling over. With a national occupancy rate of over 131 per cent, more than 55 per cent of all prisons were overcrowded in 2022. At least 89 prisons were operating at over 250 per cent capacity, and 12 exceeded 400 per cent, exposing the chronic neglect of prison infrastructure. Leading the list of severely overcrowded facilities is Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad District Prison at 497 per cent occupancy, followed by West Bengal's Kandi Sub-Jail (477 per cent) and Maharashtra's Thane Central Prison (401 per cent).
The sharp surge of the trend is not a recent phenomenon. Between 2012 and 2022, the prison population surged from 3.8 lakh to 5.7 lakh, while capacity failed to keep pace. If unchecked, projections indicate 6.8 lakh inmates by 2030, but space for only 5.15 lakh.
Overcrowding, insufficient medical care, and lack of support for mental health and disabilities continue to plague India's prison system, exposing glaring gaps between policy and implementation.
The report by IJR assesses 4 pillars -- police, prisons, judiciary, legal aid and SHRCs, using 5 parameters: human resources, infrastructure, budgets, workload, and diversity.
Left to Die
Medical infrastructure in prisons is severely compromised. Despite the Model Prison Manual (2016) recommending one doctor for every 300 prisoners, the national average stands at a staggering 1:775. Most Indian states do not meet the recommended number of medical officers, with many being understaffed. However, a few northeastern states and union territories perform better.
Worse still, states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal report one doctor for more than 1,000 inmates. Uttarakhand's doctor vacancy is over 90 per cent, with no female doctors on record—despite clear guidelines that only lady doctors should attend to women prisoners.
While 87,000 women were incarcerated in 2022, only 84 lady doctors were in service. Bihar, with 27, leads the count, while 19 states/UTs had no female doctors at all.
Mental Healthcare? Who Cares
Mental health care is another neglected area. From 4,470 in 2012 to 9,084 in 2022, the number of prisoners with recorded mental illnesses has doubled. But these figures are likely underreported.
Against the benchmark of one psychologist for every 500 inmates, India has only 25 psychologists for the entire prison population—an average of 1 for every 22,928 prisoners. That is an appalling disparity and no state comes close to meeting the benchmark.
Tamil Nadu, with 11 psychologists, fares best but even here, coverage is limited to central prisons. 25 states/UTs report no provision for mental health professionals.
Prisoners with Disabilities: Invisible and Excluded
The condition of inmates with disabilities is worsened by a lack of visibility and accountability. Despite the Accessibility Guidelines (2021) and Supreme Court's directives, prisons continue to be physically and systemically inaccessible.
There is no comprehensive data on prisoners who enter with or develop disabilities. This absence makes it difficult to assess their needs or plan accommodations like ramps, wheelchairs, prosthetics, and special beds—though these are mandated under the Model Prison Manual.
Additionally, no prison reports the appointment of a disability-inclusion officer, as recommended by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
According to the IJR report India's prisons are not just over-occupied, under-prepared, under-staffed, and under-cared-for—turning incarceration into a sentence far more brutal than the law intended.
India's prison system is in dire need of structural reforms—not just to relieve overcrowding but to ensure humane conditions for the incarcerated. Without serious investment in healthcare, mental wellness, and accessibility, prisons risk becoming institutions of irreversible harm rather than rehabilitation.
Prisons are meant for punishment, but as indicated by the report, inhumane conditions such as overcrowding and inadequate healthcare are widespread. These issues hinder rehabilitation and violate inmates' basic human rights, emphasizing the urgent need for reforms that balance punishment with humane treatment and effective rehabilitation.