A news report published in The Hindu on Sunday described how the Border Security Force (BSF) in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is handing over illegal migrants with a clean record to Bangladeshi officials as prisons are overflowing in the State. If normal procedure were to be followed, these illegal migrants would have been lodged in correctional homes, the report added.
The story has put the spotlight back on the age-old problem of overcrowded prisons in India. Data show that in 2021, the latest year for which numbers are available, over 5.54 lakh people were lodged in prison, while the total capacity of Indian jails was about 4.25 lakh. This means that the occupancy rate of Indian prisons was 130%, a peak at least in the last decade.
