Bihar's jails are currently housing more than double the number of prisoners — 42,000 against a capacity of 18,000. Worse still, the State Jail Department’s ambitious plan to massively enhance the capacity in the current year will be offset in just four years at the present growth rate of state’s jail population.The unprecedented increase in the number of inmates is due to prolonged judicial process — of the 42,000, only 4,000 are convicts whereas the rest 38,000 are undertrials. Last year, when the crime rate in the state showed a marginal decrease, the number of prisoners grew by 11 per cent. ‘‘This year, we will add three new jails and increase the capacity of existing ones, adding 13,000 more seats,’’ says Ashok Chaudhary, Minister of State for Jails. According to the estimation of the department, it will require an additional amount of Rs 4 crore every year to provide the prescribed facilities to all prisoners. ‘‘And that is just impossible,’’ says Chaudhary. With the support of the Center’s Prison Reforms Programme that provides for a matching grant with the state government investment, 80 jail-wards with a capacity of 132 each will come up this year. Besides, 17 wards will be financed by the 11th Finance Commission. Twenty wards, with a capacity of 18 each for sick prisoners too will come up. An amount of Rs 13 lakh will spent on the setting up of each ward. Besides, 400 hand-pumps and 2,119 bathrooms will also be added to Bihar’s jail infrastructure this year. The three new jails will be set up at Gopalganj, Jamui and Benipatti. A total of nearly Rs 180 crore will be spent to increase the capacities and facilities of the state’s jails over five years. This year’s investment will be around Rs 35 crore.The huge number of undertrials are not only putting strain on the infrastructure, but also creating law and order problem inside the jails. Transporting these people for appearance in court creates logistical problems and after their return to jail, they smuggle cellphones and narcotics into the wards. ‘‘When a large number of them come together after the court appearance, physical search becomes a big problem,’’ says Ravikant, IG Prisons.A recent raid conducted in Patna’s Beur jail had yielded nearly 100 cellphones and dozens of colour TVs and contrabands. The case is similar in other places too.
