Ongoing Reform Initiatives in Indian Prisons: Striving for a Humane Correctional System

India’s prison system is at a crossroads. For over a century, the Prisons Act, 1894 – a colonial-era law – has governed how prisons are managed across the country. Its singular focus on custody and discipline left almost no room for the idea of reformation. But over the last decade, and especially since 2023, there has been a noticeable shift in how the state thinks about incarceration. New legislation has been proposed, old manuals have been revised, courts have stepped in with binding directions, and the language of rehabilitation has begun replacing the language of punishment. The question now is not whether India needs prison reform – that debate is settled – but how deep these reforms actually go, and whether they are reaching prisoners on the ground.

The central law problem: who governs India’s prisons? 🔗

One of the most fundamental structural challenges in Indian prison reform is a constitutional one. Under Entry 4 of List II of the Seventh Schedule, “prisons” and “persons detained therein” are a State subject. This means that each state government is independently responsible for the administration of its prisons and the welfare of its prisoners. The central government has no direct power to legislate on the matter.

This creates a fragmented landscape. Some states have enacted their own prison laws; others are still governed by the Prisons Act of 1894. Standards for medical care, education, parole, and prisoner classification vary enormously from state to state. Reformers and legal scholars have long argued that this inconsistency works against prisoners’ rights, since the quality of your incarceration effectively depends on which state you happen to be imprisoned in.

To address this, the Ministry of Home Affairs prepared the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023 and forwarded it to all states and Union Territories on 10 May 2023. However, critically, this is not a binding central law – it is a model act, a template that states are invited, but not compelled, to adopt. States have been advised to make use of the Model Act and enact their own prison legislation based on it, with modifications suited to local conditions. Whether this advisory approach is enough to drive meaningful uniformity remains a matter of significant debate.

The Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023: what it proposes 🔗

The 2023 Model Act is the most comprehensive template for prison reform that India has seen in decades. It is explicitly designed to replace the three pre-independence laws governing prisons – the Prisons Act of 1894, the Prisoners Act of 1900, and the Transfer of Prisoners Act of 1950 – all of which were drafted with colonial priorities and contain no meaningful provisions for rehabilitation.

The Model Act marks a philosophical shift. The existing Prisons Act of 1894 mainly focuses on keeping the criminals in custody and enforcement of discipline and order in prisons, with no provision for reform and rehabilitation. The 2023 Model Act, by contrast, frames prisons as correctional institutions – places that should transform and rehabilitate prisoners back into society as law-abiding citizens.

Key provisions of the Model Act 🔗

The Model Act covers a broad range of issues that the old law entirely ignored. On the security and classification front, it provides for a security assessment and segregation committee to classify prisoners based on their age, gender, health status, and criminal history, with separate accommodation for women, transgender persons, and first-time offenders. On rehabilitation, it makes welfare programs and after-care services an integral part of institutional care, with dedicated provisions for vocational training, skill development, and reintegration support. It also introduces individual sentence planning, meaning that each prisoner is supposed to have a tailored road map for their time in custody.

Technology gets considerable attention as well. The Model Act requires integration of biometrics, CCTV, RFID tracking, and digitization into prison administration. It provides for video conferencing with courts – a measure that reduces the burden of physically transporting prisoners and speeds up legal proceedings. On the legal rights side, it formalizes provisions for legal aid, parole, furlough, and premature release as incentives for good conduct. The Act also establishes a grievance redressal mechanism and a Prison Development Board.

The limitation: adoption is optional 🔗

The critical constraint of this entire exercise is that state governments are not legally bound to adopt the Model Act. The central government can guide, advise, and fund – but it cannot compel states to legislate. This means that even the most progressive provisions in the Model Act may remain on paper indefinitely if a given state does not choose to act on them. Advocates for a binding central prison law argue that this is a gap that needs to be closed, particularly given the scale of human rights concerns in Indian prisons.

Tackling the undertrial crisis: Section 479 of the BNSS 🔗

Perhaps no reform speaks more directly to the rights of prisoners than the recent effort to reduce the number of undertrial prisoners – people who are in custody while awaiting trial, without any conviction. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s Prison Statistics India report, undertrial prisoners account for over 77% of India’s prison population. Many of them are poor, without legal representation, and have been in custody for periods that sometimes exceed the maximum sentence for the very offence they are accused of.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 – which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure and came into force on 1 July 2024 – introduced Section 479 to address this directly. Under this provision, an undertrial prisoner held for an offence not punishable by death or life imprisonment is entitled to be released on bail after serving half the maximum sentence prescribed for the alleged offence. For first-time offenders – those with no prior conviction – the threshold is reduced to one-third of the maximum period. An additional and significant feature is a statutory duty on the Superintendent of the jail to apply to the court for the prisoner’s release once the threshold is reached, rather than leaving it entirely to the prisoner to navigate the legal system.

The Supreme Court reinforced this provision through a landmark ruling in August 2024 in the case In Re: Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons, holding that Section 479 must be implemented effectively across all states and that its provisions apply retrospectively – meaning that undertrials whose cases were filed before the BNSS came into effect can still benefit from its more lenient bail standards. On Constitution Day (26 November 2024), the Ministry of Home Affairs launched a special campaign directing all states and UTs to identify eligible undertrial prisoners and move their bail applications to courts. In January 2025, states were advised that this should be a continuous exercise, not a one-time event.

The gaps Section 479 does not address 🔗

Despite these steps forward, Section 479 has drawn pointed criticism from legal scholars. As noted in analysis published in the NUALS Law Journal, the provision contains a significant exclusion under sub-section (2): an undertrial shall not be released on bail if investigation, inquiry, or trial in more than one offence or in multiple cases is pending against them. This restriction was absent in the old Section 436A of the CrPC. Since many undertrial prisoners – often from marginalized communities – face multiple pending cases, this exclusion potentially leaves the most vulnerable individuals outside the provision’s protection. Critics argue that the law addresses overcrowding at the margins without tackling the deeper structural causes.

Rehabilitation and reintegration programs 🔗

Beyond legal reform, a cluster of programs has been introduced or expanded to address what happens to a prisoner during and after incarceration.

Education and vocational training 🔗

The Model Prison Manual 2016 – the precursor to the 2023 Model Act – contains dedicated chapters on the education of prisoners and after-care and rehabilitation, and has been shared with all states for adoption. Under both the Manual and the 2023 Model Act, prisons are expected to provide vocational training and skill development programs so that prisoners can return to productive lives after release. The E-Prisons Project, developed by the National Informatics Centre, supports a centralized prisoner information management system that enables better tracking of sentence plans, rehabilitation progress, and eligibility for parole or premature release.

Legal aid and NALSA 🔗

Access to justice inside prison has been addressed through the establishment of legal aid clinics in jails across the country. The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) runs awareness camps in prisons to inform inmates of their rights – including their right to bail, plea bargaining, and Lok Adalat proceedings. The Model Prison Manual requires states to nominate Jail Visiting Advocates who regularly visit prisons to assist unrepresented inmates. NALSA has also prepared a Standard Operating Procedure for Undertrial Review Committees, which function at the district level to periodically review the status of undertrials and recommend releases where warranted.

Support for Poor Prisoners Scheme 🔗

A practical and often-overlooked barrier to release is financial. Data from the Supreme Court’s 2024 report on prison conditions shows that nearly 25,000 accused persons who were granted bail continued to remain in prison simply because they could not afford to furnish bail bonds. To address this, the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the Support for Poor Prisoners Scheme, allocating ₹20 crore in 2024 to provide financial assistance to prisoners who are unable to pay fines or secure surety for bail.

Open and semi-open jails 🔗

Open jails – where prisoners are allowed to live and work with minimal physical restrictions – represent a fundamentally different philosophy of incarceration. Rajasthan has operated one of India’s most well-known open prison systems for decades. The Supreme Court’s 2024 Report on Prisons in India specifically highlights open and semi-open jails as a model for rehabilitation – noting that the trust placed in prisoners through such arrangements contributes meaningfully to their reintegration. The 2023 Model Act also makes provisions for the establishment and management of open and high-security jails, encouraging states to expand the open prison concept.

Judicial interventions and the fight against discrimination 🔗

Courts have been among the most active drivers of reform, stepping in where legislative change has been slow. The Supreme Court’s judgment in Sukanya Shantha v. Union of India (2024) declared caste-based discrimination in prisons unconstitutional. The court found that certain state prison manuals had institutionalized caste by assigning menial and degrading tasks – such as cleaning drains and toilets – specifically to prisoners from Scheduled Castes. It directed the removal of the caste column from prisoner admission registers and struck down all provisions that classified or segregated prisoners on the basis of caste. In compliance with this order, the Ministry of Home Affairs amended both the Model Prison Manual 2016 and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act 2023, making it clear that prison authorities must ensure that no prisoner is discriminated against, classified, or segregated on the basis of caste in any aspect of prison life, including allocation of work.

The court also mandated that the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 shall have binding effect inside prisons, meaning that manual scavenging or hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks inside prisons is prohibited – addressing a practice that NCRB data and civil society reports had flagged as continuing in several facilities despite legal bans.

What the reforms leave unresolved 🔗

The cumulative picture of these reform initiatives is one of genuine intent paired with significant structural gaps. The decision to keep prison reform in the voluntary domain – relying on model acts and advisories rather than binding central legislation – means that the pace and depth of change will continue to vary dramatically across states. Prison overcrowding remains acute: the 2023 NCRB Prison Statistics India report recorded an overall occupancy rate that continues to far exceed capacity in many states. Mental health care inside prisons is severely underprovided, with the 2024 reform analysis noting over 9,000 prisoners with mental illnesses and a shortage of mental health professionals in facilities. Understaffing – with vacancy rates for prison staff reported at around 33% – continues to undermine both security and rehabilitation programming.

Perhaps most importantly, the shift from a punitive to a rehabilitative framework requires not just new laws but a transformation in institutional culture – in how prison staff are trained, how judges approach bail decisions, and how society receives people returning from incarceration. Legislation can mandate individual sentence planning, but whether a prison with an occupancy rate of 150% has the staff, space, and resources to actually execute that plan is a different question altogether.

What do you think? Given that “prisons” is a State subject under the Indian Constitution, should Parliament enact a binding central law on prison standards – and would that be constitutionally permissible? And if rehabilitation is the stated goal of India’s reformed prison system, what concrete measures would make the difference between a policy document and a lived reality for prisoners?

References

1. https://www.mha.gov.in/en/commoncontent/prison-reforms
2. https://www.mha.gov.in/MHA1/Par2017/pdfs/par2023-pdfs/LS-08082023/3007.pdf
3. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2077949
4. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1923682
5. https://www.levelupias.com/model-prisons-and-correctional-services-act-2023/
6. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/state-of-undertrial-prisoners-in-india
7. https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/Prisonreforms_06012025.pdf
8. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2117796
9. https://nualslawjournal.com/2024/11/13/retrospective-application-of-section-479-bnss-a-crucial-step-forward-in-alleviating-prison-overcrowding-or-two-steps-back/
10. https://www.nextias.com/ca/current-affairs/23-10-2024/bail-provisions-under-bnss-for-undertrial-prisoners
11. https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s3ec0490f1f4972d133619a60c30f3559e/uploads/2024/11/2024110677.pdf
12. https://visionias.in/current-affairs/news-today/2025-01-06/polity-and-governance/centre-amends-prison-manual-rules-2016-and-model-prisons-and-correctional-services-act-2023
13. https://www.pmfias.com/prison-reforms/