Jail Mail : "The bitter truth is that our prisons are overcrowded..."
The 23rd of March 2020 marks a year since the lockdown and the directions of the Supreme Court on reducing the overcrowding in prisons after taking sou motu cognizance of the risks of COVID inside prisons. The order asked State Governments to set up High-Powered Committees (HPC) to identify categories for release of prisoners and monitor the same. It also called on all Under Trial Review Committees (UTRC) to meet on a weekly basis. CHRI’s report titled Responding to a Pandemic: Prisons and Overcrowding, studies the efforts of the HPCs and UTRCs and how this translated into changes in the prison population. This Jail Mail provides a brief summary of the findings of the report and the way forward.