by Kritin Deb
People from all spheres of life have faced the blunt commenced by the outbreak of Covid-19. While some remained fortunate enough to only experience mild disruptions to daily life, the same cannot be said for several others. It is intriguing to analyse the approach adopted by prisons, which host a community that faces negligence even during the best of times, towards the wide-spreading pandemic. Owing to a limited availability of space and usage of communal resources for eating, bathing and sleeping, social distancing is a utopian proposition inside prison boundaries. It doesn’t take much to understand how susceptible these spaces are to becoming booming hotspots of the virus, as well as how difficult it is to contain and treat the virus, given the security regulations. Therefore, the fight against covid-19 presented an uphill battle from the onset for prisons and it isn’t surprising to see that most have failed miserably. On March 16, the Supreme Court advised the states to take imperative action to prevent the spread of covid-19 in prisons. Most states were swift in agreement of releasing prisoners of certain categories on either bail or parole. Thus started the process of decongesting 1,400 prisons across the country, which held 4,50,000 prisoners amongst them. States and Union Territories set up High Powered Committees (HPC’s) which oversaw the decongestion process. While many states were liberal in their offloading criteria, some states, such as Maharashtra, remained stringent. As a result, several prisons continue to be overcrowded, with Mumbai’s Arthur Road Prison hosting 3 times as many inmates as it’s capacity of 900. Inefficiency of decongestion directly hampered attempts of enforcing social distancing in these prisons. Furthermore, the judicial system also made matters worse. Unwilling to compromise in these unprecedented times, courts all over the country banned over 14,000 bail applications due to factors such as unavailability of proper documentation, which was a direct consequence of the courts functioning with only 30% staff. Once again, weak implementation, along with the uncompromising stance of the SC, led to another failed containment measure of the coronavirus. As of June 2020, over 1500 jail staffers and inmates have tested positive for coronavirus across the country. These numbers, although relatively low, are nothing short of disastrous, given how easily the virus can spread through the community. Another concern for worry is the availability of medical services in these prisons, which were sub-optimal before the threat of covid-19. As cases surge country wide, governmental medical resources are being thinly stretched and rapidly depleted. Prisons across the country lack the finances, equipment and attention of the state government, making it hard to protect the inmates from the virus. Prisons in states such as Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand face a 50% shortfall of medical staff.
In the face of inadequate medical facilities, what can be done to prevent the situation worsening inside prisons? Experts claim that it is imperative that prisoners with a negative diagnosis be shifted to institutional spaces such as vacant campuses of universities and schools, where they are separated and safe from those infected. Meticulous at first, this can be achieved through efficient planning and coordination. Cooperation of inmates can be rewarded through remission, a trade which would benefit both parties. Not only will this move massively enhance the decongestion procedure, but it will also strangle the spread oof the virus. Those infected can remain within prison premises, where newfound space and greater accessibility to resources may enable a greater rate of recovery. Furthermore, it is quintessential that the Supreme Court, as well as state governments agree upon granting parole/bail to prisoners based on risk assessment rather than the nature of offence. Moreover, relatively aged prisoners, along with those suffering from comorbidities, should be retracted from communal grounds and rather employed in some form of communal service, where they can take greater precautionary measures and stand at a lower risk of contracting the virus. In these challenging and uncertain times, it is imperative for the government to protect each and every one of its citizens and save as many lives as it can.