To prevent the smuggling of drugs in Indian jails, a parliamentary committee has recommended to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that drones should be used in prisons for aerial surveillance of the premises and sniffer dog squads be utilised to detect contraband.
During their interaction with various state/Union territory governments, the committee was informed that ganja and cell phones are the common contraband items that are most frequently smuggled into prisons. The Tamil Nadu government also informed that the throw method using a catapult is one of the common approaches employed to smuggle contraband into prisons.
“The Committee notes that key reforms that can be considered for addressing the drug problem in prisons are; strengthen security protocols at entry points, use body scanners, drug-sniffing dogs, and CCTV surveillance to detect contraband, train prison staff to recognise signs of drug use, conduct regular and random searches of cells, common areas, and inmates to deter drug smuggling,” stated the report on prison, infrastructure, conditions and reforms of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Brijlal.
According to the report, the committee has also noted that prison staff help prisoners to get contraband inside jails. “The Committee recommends that the frisking standards should be enhanced in all the state prisons. The MHA should set benchmark frisking standards to curb the entry of contraband articles and in turn prevent gang wars. Also, drones should be used in prisons to keep an aerial surveillance of the prison premises,” the committee said in its report tabled in the Rajya Sabha.
The committee has also observed that more than 70 per cent of the prisoners in Indian jails are undertrials. “These prisoners are not being released from prisons for want of sureties, inability to pay fine amounts. The prison administrations are spending a lot more money on keeping such prisoners inside jails than the bail money required for their release. A fund on the lines of “Cheyutha Nidhi” started by the Andhra Pradesh Prison Department for payment of fine amounts for poor prisoners should be created in all the states/UTs,” the report states.
According to the report, the total inmates in India are 5,54,034 against the total prison capacity of 4,25,609. The National Average Occupancy Rate in prisons across India is 130.2%. “States Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana together make up for more than 50% of the total prison population in the country. Further, Uttarakhand has reported the highest occupancy rate of 185%. Delhi with the highest crime rate in the country of 1479.9 has an occupancy rate of 182%,” the report said.
