The Dutt case highlights the need for better conditions in Indian jails

Film actor Sanjay Dutt going to prison has highlighted an aspect of our jails in the country that seldom get mention —they are unsafe places to end up in. Many prominent people have come out demanding that Dutt be provided better conditions in the jail, where he will be serving the remaining part of his five-year sentence for possessing illegal weapons during the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai. The narrative, much in Bollywood style, goes that Dutt’s life is in danger while in prison and that he should be given better facilities as he is a reformed person. While there might be an inkling of truth in these fears given that our prison safety records are poor, it should not be used as an excuse for preferential treatment towards a select few because of their status in society. Giving select privileges to certain prisoners should be stopped. A crime, irrespective of who does it, is a crime and this principle should be meted out in prisons. Entitlements — like special food, greater freedom in the prison, comfy beds and air-conditioners — rob the purpose of serving a sentence and diminish the fear of committing a crime.
On the contrary, the fear of unsafe prisons should be used as a case for improving the conditions in the thousands of jails that dot the topography of the country. Overcrowded jails where both under-trials and convicted criminals share the same space — which is a human rights violation — is a common sight in most of the prisons in India. Overcrowding often leads to bad management of inmates by prison authorities and this leads to crimes inside the prison and also leads to appalling hygienic conditions. The Tihar jail, the largest in South Asia, is also frighteningly overcrowded and it was here that Ram Singh, a main accused in the December 16 gang rape case, was attacked and found dead in his cell. By not improving the conditions in prisons across the country, India is violating the UN Human Rights Committee norms (and norms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). According to a March 2011 report of the Asian Centre for Human Rights, more than 12,000 people have died in Indian prisons over the last decade — that’s an alarming three people a day.
Our overcrowded prisons and poor living standards need to be looked into and changed if jails should actually be centres for reform and not dungeons from which there is no escape.