12/05/2021
The Participation of a resource person in the panel on Prisoner’s rights amid COVID 19
The session was initiated by a journalist, Rupesh Kumar by sharing his experience of being imprisoned. While sharing his experience at Sherghati Jail for almost 6 months, questioned the rights being denied along with inhumane conditions in the garb of the pandemic. It was followed by other speakers who highlighted the Supreme Court and High Court orders along with the formation of the High Power Committees for the prisoner’s rights. Arnesh Kumar’s judgement was discussed following the Supreme Court in In Re: Inhuman conditions order where the Supreme Court direct 1382 prisons formation of the undertrial review committee. However, the undertrial review committee is not working during pandemic situation therefore only interim bails are being granted and not regular bail. The data of prisons in Bihar where the total number of prisoners all over India in prison is 478600 out of which 39814 are in Bihar prison which amounts to 8.32% of a total prison population of India and at the end of 2019 there is 94.3% occupancy in prisons in Bihar. Further, Ms. Amrita explained the situation of women prisoners in Jail and discussed different issues that exist concerning women prisoners including the distant location from home and their vulnerabilities towards sexual abuse. Further, she highlighted the children of women in prison living with them till the age of 6 and their conditions of upbringing in jail. She concluded her presentation by explaining the standards governing women and children in prison including the Supreme court judgment of R D Upadhayay vs State of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar Prison Manual and other reports on prison and prisoner rights.
Mr Subendhu shared during the time of this pandemic his team visited a total of 5 prisons being Beur Central Jail, Beur Central Jail, Phulwarisharif Sub Jail, Danapur Jail, Mashouri Jail, Barh, DLSA, Patna, and Juvenile Justice, where we saw that in Beur Central Jail the authorized capacity for prisoners was 2360 but the number of prisoners living inside Beur Central Jail is more than 5,300.
Mr Fazal Abdali indicated that there are so many things that we have discussed so far, however, detention centers were not even mentioned under prisoner's rights. The discourse of detention center came into common parlance only after the Anti-CAA and NRC movement. There are two detention centre in Bihar i.e. and the State is making one in Patna. The foreign prisoners never get legal aid because people are not aware of such provisions. There are 98 foreign national living in jails in Bihar. Immigration detention should be the last resort taken by the State under International law. However, the state takes it as the only resort. The people working with the foreigner prisoners should be able to articulate the case i.e. the laws applicable, their rights, embassy being informed. Also, foreigners are highly discriminated against by the prison’s staffs. They are denied the rights which are for the prisoners.
The sessions reflected the conditions of the prisons and detention centers. The order of the Supreme Court and the formation of the High Power Committee did not bring much relief to the prisoners in Bihar.
