Byculla jail capacity is 200, prison population is 9,932

MUMBAI: The Byculla jail houses 9,932 prisoners against its capacity to accommodate 200 inmates, while the Mumbai Central Prison has 2,719 detainees when its orginal capacity is 804, a public interest litigation (PIL) filed before the Bombay High Court has said.

According to the PIL, there are 15,144 men and 800 women languishing in Maharashtra jails without trial.

The PIL on the overcrowded jails in the state was filed early this month by two agriculturalists and social workers from Solapur, Appasaheb Patil and Uttamrao Ghatule.

The division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari had directed state authorities to file their say in the matter within two weeks when the case came up for hearing recently.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing before the court this week.

The PIL, for which the statistics of the spiraling prison population were procured through Right to Information Act, says that the neighbouring Thane Central prison houses 2,787 prisoners despite a capacity of 1,105 inmates.

The Yerwada jail in Pune, against its capacity for 2,449 inmates, houses 3,510 prisoners. In the Kolhapur jail, which has a capacity of 1,725, about 1,816 prisoners are detained.

Nashik Road Central prison has more than 2,230 prisoners detained even though its capacity is for 1,650 inmates.

Amravati Central Prison, with a capacity of 973 inmates, has about 1,404 detainees.

The petitioners further say that there are no proper bathroom and latrine facilities in these jails. The food provided to the inmates was also "insufficient" and "not of good quality," they add.

The state jails were also facing a staff crunch as there is a requirement of 7666 people, including 6475 for security duty.

It submits that 338 working staff is needed to provide vocational training to the inmates and 387 are required for administrative work.

Urging for construction of new jails, they quoted Mahatma Gandhi as saying, "Crime is but a sign of a diseased mind and that imprisonment should aim primarily at treating the prisoner's mind and making him fit to go into society after release to lead an honest life."