Visakhapatnam: The prison population has been increasing in Andhra Pradesh for the past few years, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau.
The report said over 4,542 prisoners were crammed in the four central prisons, in a space meant for 3,764 persons. Thus, AP’s prison occupancy rate was over 120 per cent in 2022. The state’s central prisons are at Vizag city, Rajahmundry, Nellore and Kadapa.
The available capacity in the four jails is 3,764 (3,634 for male and 130 for female prisoners). It carries 4,442 prisoners including 4,449 male, 91 female and two third gender prisoners.
The overall occupancy rate in all the 106 jails in the state is 83.8 per cent. A total of 7,254 including 390 female and two transgender inmates were in various prisons against their capacity of 8,659 inmates.
Among the prison inmates in central, 1,751, including 3 female inmates, are convicts while 2,660 including 87 female inmates and two transgender are undertrials.
Among the 1,988 convicts in jails, 1,771 belonged to AP, 212 to other states and five convicts to other countries.
As per the education profile of the convicts in the state, 862 are below Class-X, 464 illiterate, 451 above Class-X and below Graduation, 148 graduates, 18 holding tech diploma or degree and 45 postgraduates.
A senior officer with the prisons department said that a majority of them were involved in murders.
Lawyers said many inmates were unable to afford the bail amount, let alone the money to hire an advocate. Poor persons remain in prison for over a year without trial even for minor offences.
In central prisons in Vizag and Rajahmundry, most of the undertrials were involved in cannabis trade and they have been struggling to get bail.
