Sanaullah was yet another victim of India's rotten prison system

Gang wars, ragging of new inmates and hate crimes- the history of India’s prisons is replete with stories of a charged atmosphere and ugly brawls which, at times, claim lives. Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Haq who died on Thursday after a fellow inmate attacked him inside Jammu’s Koth Bhalwal jail, is the latest casualty inside an Indian prison. Mohammad Aamir who spent almost 14 years in Delhi’s Tihar prison, has witnessed many such incidents. Overcrowding of prisons is the primary reason for such brawls, he said. “It leads to a resource crunch inside the prison which results in inmates fighting for basic facilities such as drinking water or even just space to sleep inside barracks.” As per the National Crimes Records Bureau, as of 2011, prisons in Indian states had 34,099 more inmates than the sanctioned capacity. The highest number of inmates (82,383) was reported from prisons in Uttar Pradesh. With an occupancy rate of a staggering 256 percent however, it was Chhatisgarh that had the most overcrowded prisons. [caption id=“attachment_768075” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: Reuters[/caption] The surroundings can make even the sanest person lose his or her temper over a trivial matter. “It is a frustrated lot. Barracks are full of hyperactivity. Any insult, humiliation or taunt, appears bigger. There are extreme reactions for petty comments,” said RK Saxena, former Inspector General (Prisons) Rajasthan. Only condemned prisoners- those facing death row- are kept separately. “Segregation of all categories of prisoners is not practically possible,” said Saxena. But overcrowding is not the only reason for jail house fights. There is also a trend of hate crimes inside prisons. Sanaullah Haq’s may have been one such case as it is seen as fallout of Indian national Sarabjit Singh’s death in Pakistan. “Outside events have a direct bearing on the atmosphere inside the prison. Every time there is news of bomb blast or any terrorist activity somewhere, the terror convict becomes a punching bag. For inmates, beating a terror convict is considered an act of patriotism,” said Aamir. “Those convicted for rape, terrorism and treason come lowest in the prison hierarchy. They are always ridiculed. They live in isolation. Many of them become depressive,” he added. In his book My days inside prison senior journalist Iftikhar Gilani narrates the attitude of jail administration towards certain categories of prisoners. “The shirt was so filthy that I almost vomited (Gilani had cleaned the toilet with it). But I was forced to wear it for the next three days. That too in the sultry June heat of Delhi. Apparently, such treatment is meted out to every prisoner who is perceived to have committed rape of minors or offences under the Official Secrets Act,” he wrote. Gilani told Firstpost that in jail, most attacks are done with the connivance of jail officials who use convicts and under-trials to teach a ’lesson’ to some prisoners. In his book, he gives an account of how he was beaten by thee jail staff and fellow inmates in the presence of a senior jail official:

One Assistant Superintendent Kishan was sitting on a chair behind the table. Ten to twelve others were in the room. Some seemed to be jail staff, while others appeared to be inmates. The Assistant Superintendent asked my name. Before I had finished saying it, a Nepali staffer slapped me. It was the signal for a free for all. I was kicked from behind, blows rained on my back and someone grabbed my hair and banged my head against the table. Blood started oozing from my mouth. My nose and ears started bleeding too. Accompanying these blows were the choicest abuses.

A total of 1,332 prisoners were reported dead in Indian jails due to natural and unnatural causes during 2011, according to NCRB data. Out of these 1,244 were natural deaths, while 88 died due to unnatural causes. Tamil Nadu reported the highest number (15) of unnatural deaths followed by Haryana & Uttar Pradesh (7 each). Most of the unnatural deaths have occurred due to suicide (68) followed by murder by inmates (8). Attack on a prison inmate, incidents like the one that happened in Jammu, reflects the non- adherence to the Prisons Act which talks about measures to ensure safety of inmates, said Sana Das, coordinator of the Prisons Reforms Programme at Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a Delhi- based NGO. Jail manuals of various state prisons have provisions of internal mechanisms for safety of prisoners in addition to visits by senior officials to supervise the condition of prisons, said Das. “You cannot leave it to the goodness of the officers who let these brawls happen as they are influenced by some personal reasons or political interference. No amount of good jail administration can be substituted for outside visits,” she said.