Citizens for Justice and Peace
Simon Nessa: Will someone tell me how my husband died? Part of CJP’s Stories from Assam series
06-Aug-2021
The denial of citizenship is much like a civil death as the ‘right to have rights’ is arbitrarily snatched away by an unfeeling State. In our work upholding and defending the rights of our fellow Indians in Assam, we came across many instances of mysterious deaths of detention camp inmates. Seemingly healthy people, suddenly dropping…
Prison Watch: Rajasthan HC directs prisons to educate inmates about their rights Court wants provisions of parole to be displayed prominently
03-Aug-2021
The Rajasthan High Court has stressed upon the need to inform convicts of the provisions of parole that can be availed by them as per the Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules, 2021. The court was dealing with a petition filed by a life convict who had sought parole after 14 years in prison and…
House Arrest: A window of opportunity A factsheet on is history, relevance and use, especially when it comes to political prisoners
14-Jun-2021
House arrest which is also known as home detention, refers to home confinement or electronic monitoring. It is one of the official methods to restrain the movement of an individual by confining the movement of the person to the residence. Related: Sign CJP’s petition to release political prisoners A prison without bars or…
A prison without bars or walls Are Open Prisons the correctional and reformatory facilities India needs?
21-Jan-2021
The concept of the open prison is based on the premise that freedom and socialisation are the best reformers. Out of a total of 63 such facilities across India, 29 are located in Rajasthan. People do make mistakes and I think they should be punished. But they should be forgiven and given the opportunity…
How India treats women in prisons NCRB report reveals overcrowding, large presence of inmates' children
10-Sep-2020
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released its in its Prison Statistics Report for 2019, and it showcases the ever-worsening plight of women prisoners. As per the data, out of the 4,78,600 prisoners, 4,58,687 were male prisoners and 19,913 were female prisoners. Out of about 1,300 prisons, there are 31 women’s jails in 15 States/Union Territories…
NCRB’s Prison Statistics Report 2019 paints a bleak picture More under-trials than actual convicts behind bars!
07-Sep-2020
The 25th edition of the Prison Statistics in India report released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) reveals some shocking results; most notably that the number of under-trial prisoners still considerably overshadows the number of convicts in Indian jails! According to the report, 69.05 percent of those behind bars were under-trials, while 30.11 percent…
Persons deprived of liberty require specific focus: UN-IASC Guidance on prisoners and detainees amidst Covid-19
31-Aug-2020
In March this year, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was getting serious, an Inter-Agency Standing Committee issued interim guidance on how people deprived of their liberty should be treated amidst growing concerns of the Coronavirus infection. The two agencies; Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), jointly…
Why we need public scrutiny for prison monitoring in India Who monitors prisons? With what degree of transparency?
17-Aug-2020
Conditions inside the prisons in India remain hidden to the public at large. But landmark court judgments have often highlighted the deplorable conditions of the prisons and the maltreatment of prisoners by the staff. Can we as a society ignore the constitutional rights of the prisoners? Related: Does India uphold Prisoners’ Right to Health? “No…
Monitoring the condition of Indian prisons Who does it, and with what degree of transparency and accountability
30-Jul-2020
To improve prison conditions does not mean that prison life should be made soft; it means that it should be made human and sensible.” – Jawaharlal Nehru in India and the World Prisons are those public institutions that are fundamentally the least public in nature. What happens within the high walls of a prison, remains…
25 inmates dead in Assam’s Detention Camps! Government claims all deaths "due to illness"
30-Jul-2019
In a shocking revelation before the Assam state assembly, the state government has admitted that 25 people have died while incarcerated in the state’s six detention camps. The state claims they all died “due to illness”. We have accessed the list of people who have died and have discovered that Goalpara detention camp has proved…
What RTI inquiries reveal about Assam’s Detention Camps CHRI files multiple applications to understand complexities, challenges and access information
04-Jul-2019
The Supreme Court-monitored updation of the the National Register of Citizens (NRC)[1] exercise, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants is being carried out in Assam. When the draft NRC was published on July 30, 2018, there was a huge controversy over the exclusion of 40.7 lakh people from it. The draft NRC which was prepared last…
महिला कैद्यांची समस्यातून सुटका कधी? मैक्स महाराष्ट्र
12-Mar-2019
The complete original article may be read here.
View to address issues faced by women prisoners DNA
12-Mar-2019
Citizens of Justice and Peace (CJP), a human rights platform, held a public meeting ‘Qaid Ke Pare’ on Monday to understand ways of addressing issues faced by women prisoners. The public meeting which took place at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh involved testimonies of a range of women — from those who have served jail term…
Plight of Women in Indian Prisons A compilation of facts and figures by CJP
09-Mar-2019
Various studies done within Indian prisons have concluded that a majority of prisoners are Adivasis, Dalits or from other marginalised communities that are being criminalised. Their social and economic situation makes them vulnerable, being unable to defend themselves legally and financially. This compilation aims to highlight the general issues related to Women Prisoners, the Structural Exclusions within the Prison,…
Women prisoners recount Jail Horror Stories Rape and torture common in jails
24-Jan-2019
Over the past 15 years, India’s jails have seen a rise in women inmates by 61 per cent, even though they constitute only 48.18% of the national population (according to the World Bank, 2017). Moreover, the Indian prison system has failed to respect their rights. From custodial torture, rape, denial of health services, lack of clean food and…