Civil Liberties ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Goa and Chandigarh. The Commission considered the study reports, which highlighted the state of infrastructure and various aspects of Jail Administration from human rights’ angle and issued appropriate recommendations. 3.42 Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao, Member, NHRC, accompanied by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission and Chief Coordinator, Custodial Justice Cell visited the Central Jail, Agartala; Female Jail, Agartala; and District Jail, Udaipur in Tripura from 10 – 13 June, 2004. The team visited Central Jail, Cherlapali Women Jail, Hyderabad and Sub-jail Bhongir from 4 - 6 December, 2004.The Chief Coordinator, Custodial Justice Cell, visited Central Jail, Thiruvananthapuram; Women Prison, Neyyattinkara; Open Jail, Thiruvananthapuram; District Jail, Kollam; and SubJail, Petnanithitla in Kerala from 29 October to 2 November, 2004. He visited all the five Jails in Goa (30 January to 2 February, 2005) and Central Jail, Chandigarh (10 February, 2005). 3.43 The reports of the above visits covering all aspects of jail administration relevant to human rights bring out the following broad picture of the jail conditions in these States: Prisons in Tripura 3.44 Tripura is experiencing overcrowding of nearly 80% against the national average of about 40. The NHRC team noticed an alarming high overcrowding at Central Jail (105%) and District Jail (143%). It is, however, heartening to note that promised steps have been taken for opening new jails and creating additional capacity in the existing jails under the modernization plan funded by the Central Government. Health cover needs to be upgraded by providing full time doctors in all District Jails and ensuring presence of a qualified Pharmacist at each Sub-Jail. The systems of parole and pre-mature release of lifers need to be rationalized in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court and guidelines issued by the NHRC. The system of free legal aid to the poor prisoners needs a thorough scrutiny and evaluation as a number of prisoners were found deprived of the basic right. Vocational training facilities and works programme at the Women Jail are utterly inadequate. There is need for greater involvement of NGOs in education, recreation and welfare of prisoners. Prisons in Kerala 3.45 Although the overall overcrowding is less than 10% in Kerala against the national average of about 40%, overcrowding is a major problem at Central Jail, Thiruvananthapuram and District Jails, Kollam and Kozhikode because of uneven distribution of jail population. Out of a total of the 14 districts, six districts, namely Pathananathitta, Iduki, Ernakulam, Mallapuram, Wynad and Kozhikode are without proper District Jails. The state of jail buildings in Kerala are pathetic. The situation of undertrial prisoners, administration of parole, management of Open Jail and execution of works programme provided at the Central prisons present a good picture of jail administration in Kerala. Inadequacy of health cover, poor standard of sanitation and hygiene and want of recreational facilities are its glaring deficiencies. Poor living conditions for women prisoners, with hardly any medical facilities are also a matter of concern. The system of pre-mature release of lifers needs to be 18 AR-Chapter-1-19-10-6-06.p65 National Human Rights Commission Annual Report - 2004-2005 38 7/17/06, 6:29 PM