As of Dec 2019, 4.78 lakh prisoners in 1,350 jails across country: MHA

About 4,78,600 prisoners were locked up in close to 1,350 prisons across the country as of December 2019 as opposed to the maximum capacity of 4,03,739, according to the Union Home Ministry on Monday.

As per the data provided by Minister of State (MoS) G Kishan Reddy, through a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles the statistics provided to it by States and Union Territories.

The data provided above is from the report of 2019, which however has the figure of 2017 for the state of West Bengal due to lack of data for the year 2019.

Reddy was responding to a question posed by MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, in which he had raised the issue of overcrowding in prisons and the steps taken by the Centre to stop it from happening.

"No such directions have been issued to the State governments. However, to address the issue of overcrowding and improving the condition of prisons, the MHA has issued various advisories to States and UTs from time to time. MHA has also circulated the Model Prison Manual 2016 to all of them," the reply read.

( With inputs from ANI )