Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘special privileges’ should be every prisoner’s right

In simple terms, this means that when persons are imprisoned, the curtailment of liberty is the punishment. Nowhere is it prescribed that prisoners should be made to sleep on concrete floors, live in unhygienic conditions or eat food with worms. Yet, that seems to be an expectation. A life of hardship, days of misery, nights of despair — this is how a common person imagines the life of a prisoner to be. Sadly, this narrative is rarely challenged, bringing us to the present situation, where access to the most basic amenities appears like a privilege.

Delhi Prisons has three prison complexes, Tihar is the largest in the world, comprising nine central prisons; the second is in Rohini and the third in Mandoli with six central prisons. At the end of 2022, Delhi Prisons had a prisoner population of 18,497 persons with an occupancy of 185 per cent. One concerning fact is the high incarceration rate in Delhi (110 prisoners per lakh population) vis-à-vis the national average (52 prisoners per lakh population).

Central Jail No. 2 where Kejriwal is lodged, has the lowest prison occupancy of 118 per cent among the other prisons, with Central Jail No. 4 at 466 per cent occupancy (3,453 prisoners in capacity of 740 prisoners) and Central Jail No. 1 at 411 per cent occupancy (2,323 prisoners in the capacity of 565 prisoners). Acute overcrowding can have disastrous implications for a prisoner — imagine the queues for accessing toilets for morning routines, sleeping on a rotation basis, struggling for space, not to mention the undue stress on prison administration and resources.

Allocation for institutions such as schools or hospitals is based on the number of seats or beds available. Why are there no such standards for prisons? Why is it acceptable to remand a prisoner to a prison with no capacity? Why does the superintendent of prison not have the power to deny admission when their seats (capacity) are full? The Supreme Court has time and again upheld the right to life in the context of prisoners. The right to life includes the right to live with dignity, and this should include the right not to be detained in overcrowded prisons.

The Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023, prepared by the Government of India, states in Section 3 that one of the functions of prisons is to provide prisoners with food, clothing, accommodation, other necessities and medical treatment. Yet, one finds, be it Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal or Delhi — unless the prisoner is able to secure permissions from the court, they are denied access to even the most basic necessities.

These court permissions too are only accessible to those who can afford to hire good lawyers. For the vast majority of prisoners, who hail from weak socio-economic backgrounds, asking for a thing as simple as a book or toothbrush or a sanitary pad, is a herculean task. As a result, either prisoners never demand their basic rights or are found doing daily chores such as washing clothes, dishes, sweeping, etc., for other influential prisoners, as barter for accessing these facilities.

It is time that we view prisons and prisoners from a lens of reformation and rehabilitation. Prisons are not the “end” but the beginning for those who find themselves entangled with the criminal justice system, and seek to set a path on the road to reform. It is the function of prisons to provide correctional services to prisoners with the objective of rehabilitating them in society as law-abiding citizens.

The next time one considers access to books, medicines, and pens as a special privilege for high-profile prisoners, we must challenge our collective conscience that continues to normalise the inhuman, degrading, undignified treatment of human beings in prisons.

The writer is a lawyer and expert on prison reforms. She has been associated with the Prison Reforms Programme at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative since 2008. Views are personal