VIJAYAWADA: The State reported an 84 per cent increase in prison deaths. As many as 46 such incidents were reported in 2020 against 25 in 2019, according to the Prison Statistics of India (PSI) report released by the National Crime Records Bureau on Monday.
According to the report, a total of 1,887 prisoners died in judicial custody in the country, out of which 1,642 were natural deaths and 189 others died due to unnatural causes. The causes of deaths in 56 cases are not known yet. While natural deaths accounted for 87 per cent (1,642 out of 1,887), unnatural deaths accounted for 10 per cent (189 out of 1,887) of the total count.
The report further classified that 1,542 natural deaths were due to illnesses such as heart-related ailments, kidney problems, tuberculosis, cancer, liver problems and many more, and the remaining 100 were due to ageing.
In Andhra Pradesh, 39 deaths out of the total 46 were natural deaths mainly due to ageing or illness, while seven others were categorised as unnatural, according to the report. “Uttar Pradesh reported the highest of 434 deaths followed by 148 in West Bengal and 140 in Bihar. Andhra Pradesh stood at the 14th position in prison deaths,” the data compiled till December 31, 2020, revealed.
The report further said the Andhra Pradesh government is following the ‘Prisoner Literacy’ programme in all prisons to encourage education among the inmates. As part of the programme, teachers were appointed in some of the jails to impart primary and secondary education to make all prisoners literate.
Graduate and postgraduate courses are being imparted by open universities like Andhra University, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Ambedkar University and Indira Gandhi National Open University. In addition, special remission is being awarded to those prisoners who are successful in exams.