Yerawada Central Jail housing more inmates than pre-Covid period

The Yerawada Central Jail, even after decongestion last year, has surpassed the population it housed even before the pandemic struck

The Yerawada Central Jail, even after decongestion last year, has surpassed the population it housed even before the pandemic struck. With 5,693 inmates on March 31, 2020, the Pune-based prison now holds over 5,900 inmates. The prison, which is the largest jail in Maharashtra, has maintained the highest rate of overpopulation among central prisons in Maharashtra before and after the decongestion efforts made during the Covid19 pandemic.

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Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse-Patil visited the Yerawada prison, met with Sunil Ramanand, additional director general of prisons, Maharashtra, and released the Maharashtra prisons data for 2019-2020 in form of a book.

In 2019-2020, Mumbai central jail recorded the highest overpopulation with 427 per cent overpopulation, the Kalyan district prison touched 354 per cent overpopulation, followed by Thane central jail with 327 and then Yerawada central with 235 per cent overpopulation.

The overpopulation is prevalent for almost all the prisons - central and district - in Maharashtra besides Nashik road central. However, the congestion is particularly severe in Yerawada, Mumbai, Thane central jails and Kalyan district jail, according to the data.

This is true even though the prison department has not recalled the prisoners released in the decongestion process. The floating population and the under-trial prisoners who have been in the prisons for multiple years make up for the maximum share, both in central prisons. Therefore, among the four major types of prisons, central jails have the highest rate of overpopulation compared to its capacity.

The total capacity of the nine central prisons is 14,841 but they held a total of 25,397 inmates in the year 2019-2020. In Yerawada central jail particularly, in 2019-2020, the capacity was 2,449 while the population was above 5,000. Decongestion happened and Yerawada central prison released close to 1000 prisoners and brought the population down. However, in June 2021, the population had crossed 5,000 and that is excluding the population in the temporary jail established in a student hostel.

In yet another case of gross overpopulation, the Mumbai central jail with a capacity of around 800 and held over 3,000 prisoners in 2019-2020. In June 2021, the population was over 2,800.

In Thane central prison, the population in 2019-2020 was 3,716 in a facility that was built to hold 1,105 inmates. In June 2021, the population was 3,501.

The Kalyan district prison, with a capacity of 540, used to hold 1,864 in 2019-2020 and in June 2021, it still held 1,759 inmates.