look news india
The government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has achieved great success in making the prison administration and correctional services of Uttar Pradesh modern, safe and humane. For decades, the biggest challenge facing the prison system of Uttar Pradesh has been the accumulation of prisoners in the barracks more than their capacity i.e. overcrowding. Overcrowding in prisons not only hindered internal security and administrative monitoring, but also seriously affected the health, hygiene, human rights of prisoners and the effective implementation of rehabilitation programs. To provide a permanent solution to this long-standing problem, the State Government worked on a comprehensive action plan for expansion of infrastructure and construction of modern prison complexes during the last nine and a half years. As a result, a historic decline has been recorded in the rate of overcrowding in the state’s jails, due to which the state’s correctional system has emerged as a new and stronger model.
If we look at the statistical analysis and the official data of the Prison Department, in the year 2017, when the restructuring of the administrative system in the state started, the total sanctioned prisoner capacity of 70 jails of Uttar Pradesh was only 58,400, whereas due to the actual number of prisoners being much more, the overcrowding ratio had reached a worrying level of 1.77. This simply meant that the jails were forced to keep almost two and a quarter times more prisoners than their prescribed capacity. In the last nine and a half years, on the basis of continuous budgetary allocation, systematic construction works and administrative restructuring, the total jail capacity of the state has increased to 77,673 prisoners by the year 2026. It is the result of this huge increase in capacity that today the overcrowding rate in the state has come down to the level of 1.03, which is almost normal and very close to balanced capacity.
At present, a strong and extensive network of total 77 prisons are actively operating within Uttar Pradesh. This organizational structure includes 7 Central Prisons, 2 Special Women Central Prisons, 64 District Prisons, 1 Special Prison, 2 Sub Prisons and 1 Adarsh Kishore Sadan for the reformation of juvenile prisoners. Yogi government has started the proper operation of seven brand new and modern jails since 2017. These include modern revival of Chitrakoot, Ambedkar Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Etawah Central Jail, Prayagraj, Shravasti and old district jail Bareilly. With the opening of these seven new jails alone, a new and additional capacity of 10,495 prisoners was developed, which completely eliminated the huge pressure of prisoners from the old jails of many nearby densely populated districts and gave unprecedented strength to the security system there.
Keeping in mind the future population growth and judicial requirements in the state, the Yogi government is now taking rapid steps towards the construction of six more new modern district jails. With the completion of these proposed six district jails, the total jail system of Uttar Pradesh will have the capacity to accommodate 7,732 additional prisoners in safe and orderly manner. Under this new action plan, it has been proposed to construct a new modern jail with a huge capacity of 2,030 prisoners in Kanpur city, 2,000 capacity in Moradabad, 1,520 capacity in Shahjahanpur, 1,056 capacity in Auraiya, 574 capacity in Gyanpur-Bhadohi and a new district jail with a capacity of 552 prisoners in Lalitpur. The detailed proposal for administrative, technical and financial approvals of all these six prison projects has been sent to the government by the Prison Administration and Correctional Services, which is soon going to get the seal of final approval from the cabinet level.
The priority of the government is not limited only to preparing proposals for new jails, but the jail projects currently under construction are being completed on a war footing. The civil and electrical construction work of the new district jails being built in Amethi and Mahoba under Bundelkhand and Awadh regions has now entered its final phase. As per the latest progress report, the construction work of Amethi District Jail has been completed by more than 98 percent, while the work of Mahoba Jail has been completed by more than 93 percent. Apart from these two projects, construction of new jails with state-of-the-art security standards is also going on at a rapid pace in Hathras, Kushinagar, Jaunpur and Hapur districts. The total sanctioned capacity of these six under-construction prison projects will be 6,156 prisoners. The state government has set strict deadlines and directed the construction agencies to complete most of these projects within the year 2026 and hand them over to the prison department.
In order to overall expansion of the prison infrastructure, the Yogi government is making concrete preparations for the establishment of new prisons even in those border and newly formed districts, where till now independent district prisons were not available. Under this scheme, the legal process of land purchase, land acquisition and official registry for setting up new jails in Sambhal, Shamli, Ballia, Saharanpur, Amroha and Chandauli districts is being carried forward at full speed. For many of these important projects, special budget funds worth crores of rupees have already been released at the government level for initial land acquisition. Prison experts clearly believe that overcrowding in prisons seriously harms the basic human rights of prisoners, health services, drinking water, sanitation and rehabilitation programs. To find a permanent solution to this humanitarian and security challenge, the Yogi government has given top priority to increasing the capacity of jails, construction of new barracks, modernization of old premises, high-tech CCTV surveillance and modern security resources, so that every prisoner can get a residential environment as per the standards prescribed in the jail manual and jails can truly become true reform homes.