60x30 barrack, 120 men & 3 Indian-style toilets

BENGALURU: “It looks like a sheep wagon where animals are stuffed without mercy or logic.“ This is an insider's description of a barrack at the Parappana Agrahara central prison where 120 undertrials have been kept.
Though prison norms don't allow more than 20 inmates in a 30x60-ft barrack, jail officers have refused to shift the undertrials ­ arrested during the garment workers' agitation in Bengaluru on April 18 and 19 ­ citing security reasons.“Owing to lack of space, most men do not sleep at night. They are seen squatting and dozing till morning. During day, they catch sleep on a rota arrange ment,“ a prison source said.
The 120 men, in the 20-45 age group, are forced to share three Indian-style toilets.
The undertrials are in poor health because of the excessive heat in their cramped accommodation. There are only three doctors at the prison hospital to attend to them, the source told TOI. As a rule, doctors should issue fitness certificates to inmates whenever they are produced before court. But at Parappana Agrahara, “sometimes doctors are forced to issue fitness certificates without carrying proper checks,“ he added. The accused may have more tough days ahead because of police laxity in producing them before courts.
“Jurisdictional police, who are responsible for producing undertrials before courts, have failed to do so on the scheduled dates. As a result, courts have adjourned hearings to future dates, forcing the inmates to remain inside the prison longer. Had police acted in time and produced them before courts, most of them would have walked out on bail,“ the source said. “The Indian Penal Code sections under which these men were arrested are serious.We don't think they will get bail easily,“ the source added. Police had arrested 247 persons during the violent agitation against the Centre's changes to EPF-withdrawal rules, and released about 100 soon after.
TIMES VIEW
The government must learn to treat its citizens as human beings. For, packing undertrials like cattle in a crowded barrack is blatant violation of human rights. How will they be able to sleep, even relieve themselves in such a crowded place? This raises a bigger question: how much worse is the condition of convicts in jails? If people arrested for protests are made to languish in jail without being produced in court, our jails will only be over-crowded.The government must bring to book officials responsible for the ill-treatment of undertrials and ensure that undertrials face a speedy trial.