Suicides in prison: Karnataka ranks second

BENGALURU: The recent data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed that Karnataka ranks second when it comes to suicides in prisons, next only to West Bengal. Even in other unnatural deaths category, the state stands fourth.

NCRB data reveals that 1,584 prisoners, including 52 women inmates, died in jails due to both natural and unnatural causes in 2015 in the country. Among these, 1,469 were natural deaths, while 115 were due to unnatural causes. Among 52 women, three died due to unnatural deaths.

Unnatural death are categorised as suicide, execution, murder by inmates, deaths due to assault by outside elements, deaths due to firing and deaths due to negligence / excess by jail personnel. Among the unnatural deaths in prisons, Uttar Pradesh stands first with 21 such cases, and is followed by Delhi (15), West Bengal (12), Karnataka (11), Maharashtra (7) and Andhra Pradesh (6).

Most of the unnatural deaths were in the form of suicides and 77 such cases were reported, followed by uncategorised deaths (19), murdered by fellow inmates (11), deaths due to assault by outside elements (7) and deaths due to execution (1).

In suicide cases, West Bengal topped the chart with 10 cases, followed by both Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh which saw nine cases. While six cases were reported in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, five were reported in Tamil Nadu, and four each in Delhi, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

There were 65 natural deaths, including one of a female inmate in the jails in Karnataka, while 11 cases of unnatural deaths were reported in 2015. Of these 11 cases, nine were suicides, one was murder by inmates and the other was death due to assault by outsiders elements.

As far as suicides are concerned, it is said that lack of counselors in prisons is the major reason for such incidents. An official from the Parappana Agrahara central prison said that the government has not appointed any counselors and only NGOs are doing the job. “There is an arrangement where psychiatrists from government hospitals visit the prison once or twice a week. Though NGOs engage counsellors on a daily basis, it is not helping much, as there will be around 4,000 inmates on any given day,” he said.

Former DG&IGP S. T. Ramesh, who also has the experience of serving as ADGP of the prisons department, said that suicidal tendency is high among inmates as they are always under tension and anxiety. “There should be a proper system where inmates should be counselled when they are admitted to the jail and also while they are released. Even during their stay, inmates with depression should be identified and counselled. When I was the ADG, I had recommended that one counselor should be appointed for every 500 inmates. But it is not implemented even today.”