CHAPTER - 3

TYPES OF PRISON INMATES

The Open Jails located in
Maharashtra have reported higher number
of convicts (559) followed by Rajasthan
(410), Uttaranchal (304), Andhra Pradesh
(290) and Kerala (262).

Prison inmates lodged in various

jails are categorised as Convicts,
Undertrials and Detenues. This population
can also be further classified on other
parameters such as Gender, Nationality,
Mental health etc.

The number of convicts kept in

Special Jails was highest in Orissa (312)
followed by Uttar Pradesh (266) and Assam
(194).

Convicts
Madhya Pradesh has accounted
for the highest number of convicted
prisoners (14,391) at the end of 2005
among the States & UTs. Other States
which had considerably large number of
convicts were Uttar Pradesh (13,284),
Maharashtra (9,229), Tamil Nadu (7,463),
Bihar
(5,609),
Rajasthan
(5,572),
Jharkhand (5,294), Punjab (5,072),
Andhra Pradesh (5,011), Haryana (4,793),
Gujarat (4,445), Chhattisgarh (4,299),
Orissa (4,196) and Karnataka (4,049)
(Table-3.1).

The State/UT-wise, Jail-wise and

Gender-wise information on different type of
prison inmates is presented in Table-3.5 to
Table 3.12. The States of Maharashtra
(428), Madhya Pradesh (242), Chhattisgarh
(187), West Bengal (146), Karnataka (143),
Gujarat (138), Jharkhand (134) and Punjab
(105) have reported higher number of
female convicts in their Central Jails (Table3.5). Uttar Pradesh (162) accommodated
the highest number of female convicts in
their district jails followed by Haryana (104),
Orissa (62), Madhya Pradesh (51), Assam
(40) and Punjab (36) (Table-3.6)

The State/UT wise distribution of

convicts lodged in different jails is
presented in Table 3.1. Madhya Pradesh
(11,414), Maharashtra (7,653), Uttar
Pradesh (7,198), Tamil Nadu (7,130),
Jharkhand (4,312), Andhra Pradesh
(4,161), Rajasthan (4,153), Chhattisgarh
(4,013), Bihar (4,008), Punjab (3,960),
Karnataka (3,810), Gujarat (3,712) and
West Bengal (3,357) accommodated
majority of the convicted prisoners in their
Central Jails.
District Jails of Uttar
Pradesh (5,659), Haryana (3,450), Orissa
(3,231), Madhya Pradesh (1,659), Assam
(1,539) and Bihar (1,201) catered to a
large number of convict prisoners. The
number of convicts in subjails was higher
in Madhya Pradesh (1,132), Orissa (489),
Bihar (343), Punjab (188),
Andhra
Pradesh (146), Gujarat and Tripura (120
each). Borstal Schools in Madhya
Pradesh have reported the highest
number of Convicts (186) followed by
Orissa (109), Punjab (77) and Haryana
(70).

The exclusive women jails in Tamil

Nadu accommodated 243 convicts,
followed by
Andhra Pradesh (184),
Rajasthan (167) and Uttar Pradesh (125).
Delhi is the only UT having exclusive
women jails (117 convicts) (Table-3.8).
Undertrials
Detailed information on Undertrials
lodged in different jails of States and UTs is
given in Table-3.2. The highest number of
undertrial prisoners in various jails during
the year 2005, was reported from Uttar
Pradesh (43,078) followed by Bihar
(40,019), Madhya Pradesh (16,991),
Maharashtra (15,946), West Bengal
(14,017) and Jharkhand (13,939). Other
States which have also reported high
number of undertrials in their jails are Delhi
(9,791), Orissa (9,720), Andhra Pradesh
29

accommodated the undertrials mainly in

District jails. Madhya Pradesh (7,724),
Orissa (4,980) and
Andhra Pradesh
(3,188) had lodged more undertrials in the
sub jails than those in district jails.

(9,592), Punjab (9,572), Karnataka (7,979),

Haryana (7,717) and Rajasthan (7,363).
Some of the States/UTs have
reported large number of the undertrials
kept in Central Jails. The States/UTs in
which majority of undertrials were kept in
Central Jails were Maharashtra (9,556),
Delhi (9,415), Bihar (9,124), West Bengal
(7,076), Punjab (6,863), Madhya Pradesh
(4,616), Karnataka (4,266) and Andhra
Pradesh (4,029). Other States have kept
most of the undertrials either in district
jails or sub jails. Uttar Pradesh (41,249),
Bihar (21,919), Jharkhand (9,376),
Maharashtra (5,974), Haryana (5,753),
Madhya Pradesh (4,651), Orissa (3,601)
Bengal
(3,384)
had
and
West

The jails exclusively meant to lodge

women prisoners have reported population
of women undertrials in Delhi (370),
Maharashtra (326), Andhra Pradesh (286),
Punjab (132), Tamil Nadu (47), Bihar (40)
Rajasthan (38) and Kerala (22).
Detenues
Tamil Nadu has reported the
highest number of Detenues (827) kept in
various prisons. Other States which have

Table 3(A)
Number of Civil Prisoners (Convicts & Undertrials) in Jails at the end of 2005
SL.
NO.
(1)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28

STATE/UT

(2)
ANDHRA PRADESH
ARUNACHAL PRADESH*
ASSAM
BIHAR
CHHATISGARH
GOA
GUJARAT
HARYANA
HIMACHAL PRADESH
JAMMU & KASHMIR
JHARKHAND
KARNATAKA
KERALA
MADHYA PRADESH
MAHARASHTRA
MANIPUR
MEGHALAYA
MIZORAM
NAGALAND
ORISSA
PUNJAB
RAJASTHAN
SIKKIM
TAMILNADU
TRIPURA
UTTAR PRADESH
UTTARANCHAL
WEST BENGAL
TOTAL (STATES)
29 A & N ISLANDS
30 CHANDIGARH
31 D & N HAVELI
32 DAMAN & DIU
33 DELHI
34 LAKSHADWEEP
35 PONDICHERRY
TOTAL (UTs)
TOTAL (ALL-INDIA)
*Jails do not exist

CONVICTS
MALE

FEMALE

(3)
20
0
0
11
0
0
16
0
2
0
0
0
19
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
0
1082
19
0
1177
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1177

(4)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
10
0
0
11
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
11

30

UNDERTRIALS
TOTAL

MALE

(5)
20
0
0
11
0
0
16
0
2
0
0
0
19
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
0
1092
19
0
1188
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1188

(6)
0
4
190
2
0
0
291
0
0
0
18
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1287
125
0
1921
0
0
0
2
1
0
0
3
1924

FEMALE
(7)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
23
3
0
26
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
26

TOTAL
(8)
0
4
190
2
0
0
291
0
0
0
18
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1310
128
0
1947
0
0
0
2
1
0
0
3
1950

civil prisoner were reported out of which

10 are from Uttar Pradesh and 1 is from
Tamil Nadu.

reported considerable number of detenues

in their prisons are Jammu & Kashmir
(377), Gujarat (320), Uttar Pradesh (249),
Maharashtra (235), Karnataka (158) and
Manipur (103). Tamil Nadu has reported
40 female detenues in their Jails which
was the highest among all the States
and UTs. The details are presented in
Table 3.3.

Undertrial Civil Prisoners

A total of 1,950 undertrial civil
prisoners were reported from 10
States/UTs at the end of the year 2005.
Uttar Pradesh (1,310) has reported the
highest number of undertrial civil prisoners
followed by Haryana (291), Bihar (190)
and Uttaranchal (128). 23 out of total 26
female
undertrial
civil
prisoners
reported in the country, were from
Uttar Pradesh.

Mentally ill Prisoners

1904 inmates were mentally ill
out of total 3,58,368 inmates lodged in
various jails in the country, accounting for
only about 0.53 percent of total inmates.
The details are presented in Table 3.23.
The number of inmates suffering from
Mental illness kept in jails were
considerably large in the States/UTs of
(317),
Delhi (189),
Madhya
Orissa
Pradesh (180), Maharashtra (171) and
West Bengal (155).

Type and Share of Prison Inmates

The share of different types of
inmates to total inmate population is
presented in Table 3.4. Undertrial
prisoners were the largest among the
various types of inmates kept in the jails.
The States/UTs which reported very high
percentage of undertrials to total prisoners
are : D&N Haveli (100%), Lakshadweep
(100%), Meghalaya (87.7%), Bihar (87.3),
Chandigarh (81.5%), Delhi (79.5%),
Nagaland (77.4%), West Bengal (77.2%),
Uttar Pradesh and Mizoram (76.0%) and
Manipur (74.7%)

Civil Prisoners
Information was also collected on
Civil Convicted and Undertrial prisoners
apart from Convict and Undertrial
prisoners under various IPC and SLL
crimes. Only 9 States/UTs have reported
lodging a small number of convicts in their
jails. Details are presented in Table 3(A)
on the previous page. The analysis of
such
information
received
from
States/UTs is given below.

All the States and UTs except

Tamil Nadu have reported very high
proportion of undertrial prisoners. The
percentage of Undertrial prisoners to total
jail inmates in general ranged from 45.9
percent to 100 percent. The lowest and
the highest percentage of undertrial
prisoners were reported from Himachal
Pradesh (45.9%) and D&N Haveli and
Lakshadweep (100% each). Tamil Nadu
has reported a separate category of
remand prisoners whom other States
consider as undertrial prisoners. The
undertrial prisoners in Tamil Nadu
constituted 14.5 percent of total inmates
and remand prisoners constituted 45.4
percent making it total 59.9 percent
undertrials as compared to other States.

Convicted Civil Prisoners

A total of 1,188 convicted civil
prisoners
were
reported
from
9
States/UTs
namely, Andhra Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh,
Haryana,
Jammu
&
Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Tamil
Nadu,
Uttar
Pradesh
and
Uttaranchal at the end of 2005. Uttar
Pradesh (1,092) has reported the highest
number of convicted civil prisoners
followed by Andhra Pradesh (20), Madhya
Pradesh and Uttaranchal (19 each),
Haryana (16), Chhattisgarh (11), Tamil
Nadu (6) and Maharashtra (3),
No
Convicted civil prisoners were reported
from any of the UTs. 11 female convicted

Convicted Prisoners continued to

figure lower than the undertrials in the
31

country as a whole as well as in all the

States/UTs except Himachal Pradesh and
Tripura. The percentage share of convicted
prisoners of the total prison population, in
various States which reported high share of
such prisoners are Himachal Pradesh
(54.1%), Tripura (53.3%), Madhya Pradesh
(45.7%), Chhattisgarh (43.8%), Rajasthan
(42.9%) and Pondicherry (41.3%).

total undertrials were in the age group of

18-30 years followed by 42.7% in the age
group of 30-50 years. Only 7 States/UTs
reported exception to this trend where
majority of undertrial prisoners were in the
age group of 30-50 years instead of 18-30
years. These States/UTs were Maharashtra
(48.5%), Nagaland (57.2%), Punjab
(47.4%), Tamil Nadu (47.8%), Uttar
Pradesh (49.1%), Chandigarh (43.4%) and
Lakshadweep (100%) (Table-3.16)

The share of detenues lodged in

prisons of most of the States and UTs was
either nil or less than one percent, however,
significant percentage of detenues was
observed only in six States namely,
Manipur (19.5%), Jammu & Kashmir
(17.6%), Meghalaya & Tamil Nadu (4.0%
each), Nagaland (3.8%) and Gujarat
(2.9%).

1,390 foreigners consisting of

1,249 males and 141 females were
undergoing sentences in various jails of
the country. The highest number of
foreigner convicts (701) was reported
from Uttar Pradesh followed by West
Bengal (201) and Maharashtra (178). The
other States and UTs reporting foreigner
convicts in their jails were Tamil Nadu (58),
Punjab (41), UT of Delhi (80) and Himachal
Pradesh (31). The details may be seen in
Table-3.17.

The share of others (not specified)

similar to the share of detenues, was nil in
most of the States/UTs except Tamil Nadu
and West Bengal. The highest share of
45.4 percent for such inmates was reported
from Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu has a
category of Remand prisoners. No other
State reported such category of prisoners
separately. 4,955 remand prisoners
accounting for 45.4 percent of total
prisoners (15,835) have been shown under
Others in case of Tamil Nadu, in the
absence of any such category.

2,342 foreigners (1869 male + 473

female) were kept in various jails of the
country as undertrial prisoners. The
highest number of such undertrials was
reported from West Bengal (1,176) followed
by Maharashtra (447) and UT of Delhi
(261). The other States/UTs reporting
significant presence of foreigner undertrial
prisoners in their jails were : A&N Islands
(90), Uttar Pradesh (63), Rajasthan (53),
Bihar (51) and Punjab (48). The details may
be seen in Table-3.19.

The age-group wise percentage

of convicts to total convicts was the
highest (45.8%) in the age group of 3050 years followed by 36.5% in the agegroup of 18-30 years. A contrary trend
was observed in case of some States/UTs
where majority of their convict prisoners
were in the age group of 18-30 years
instead of 30-50 years. These States and
UTs were Haryana (44.4%), Karnataka
(58.5%), Mizoram (55.0%), Sikkim (60.3%)
and UT of Delhi (54.8). The details can be
seen at Table- 3.14. Only 15.0% convicts
undergoing sentences in various jails of
the country were above the age of 50
years.
The majority of the undertrial
prisoners were in the age group of 18-30
years at all India level. 46.4 percent of the
32