Kamal Ghorui
Ranchi: Jharkhand recorded an overall jail occupancy rate of 91.7 per cent in 2024 from 106.7 per cent in 2023. But district jails recorded an occupancy rate of 114 per cent in 2024 — lower than the national average of 120.3 per cent, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report-2025.Jharkhand was among the 11 states and six union territories that had occupancy rates below 100 per cent in 2024. The others were Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Tripura, Odisha, Daman and Diu, Nagaland, Manipur, Ladakh and Lakshadweep, the NCRB report stated.Nationally, the average jail occupancy stood at 112.7 per cent, with Madhya Pradesh recording the highest figure of 163.5 per cent.In Jharkhand, central jails reported an occupancy rate of 90.5 per cent against the national average of 118.3 per cent, while sub-jails stood at 53.9 per cent as against the nationwide average of 83.2 per cent.IG (Prisons) Sudarshan Mandal said, “The state administration took several measures after the high occupancy rate in 2023. The new jails at Barhi and Madhupur were made operational and prisoners were shifted to these two. The prisoners were also transferred from overcrowded to less crowded jails.”“The key reason for high occupancy was the large number of undertrial prisoners. In 2024, of the 16,201 inmates lodged in Jharkhand jails, 11,232 were undertrials,” he added.Jharkhand had 32 jails — seven central jails, 16 district jails, seven sub-jails, and one borstal school and one special jail — with a total capacity of 17,671 in 2024.
