NEW DELHI: A minimum of 9,681 children below the age of eighteen (18) years was wrongly imprisoned in adult prisons between January 2016 and December 2021. On average each year over 1,600 children in conflict with the law are transferred to adult prisons or arrested. It was a result of a national study based on RTI that is being released for the first time ever with data collected annually from state prisons.
Also attending the event as a panelist was Rashmi, who launched the report in her capacity as director at a panel discussion held in the capital. After nearly six years behind bars she finally had an opportunity to get out of prison through bail facilitated by iProbono lawyers.
The Juvenile Justice Act provides that children accused or convicted of committing crimes should be placed either in observation homes or special homes and cannot be sent to prisons meant for adults.
Justice S Ravindra Bhat, formerly a Supreme Court judge speaking at the launch stressed that strict punitive measures must be enforced against states which wrongfully detain children. The expert called for compensation according to monetary regulations.
Gitanjali Prasad, lead author of the study said it sought greater accountability hence went through RTI across 28 states and two Union Territories from April 2022 to March 2023. This request was made by prison headquarters. “An overall response rate of 50% underscores significant failure on part state prison department towards voluntary disclosure obligations under RTI Act.”
The figure refers to pooled responses from approximately half (285) out of total sample population (570), district and central jails.
Finally, juvenile justice commission also emphasized data access regarding adult prisons where children may have been detained so that immediate action can be taken by transferring those kids into day care centers.
However JJB visited only seventy times while Uttar Pradesh alone transferred two thousand nine hundred fourteen such minors from adult jails due to its demographic size. Only about one-third of prisons in Bihar responded to the RTIs stating that 1,518 children were moved and 95 JJB visits were made.
Strikingly, as many as ninety percent (90%) of the prisons in Haryana replied that there were 1,621 children shifted. On the other hand, only thirty-eight percent (38%) of prisons based in the capital city responded, saying that seven hundred sixty-seven (767) kids have been shifted.
The study pointed out that only one child had been transferred from Jammu and Kashmir, zero offspring had been transferred from Odisha while one of Goa’s two prisons said it did not keep records according to information sought after.
