Outside Delhi's Tihar jail

(Research: Atul Thakur, TNN)

NEW DELHI: India may have the ignominious tag of being one of the world’s most polluted countries and is among the bottom on the list of the world’s happiest countries, but there is one list on which it has done better.According to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research ’ s data on the number of prisoners lodged in jails worldwide, the United States, with 666 of every one lakh Americans behind bars, has the highest imprisonment rate among major countries.India has a significantly lower imprisonment rate -- 33 of every one lakh Indians are behind bars. However, Russia and Brazil fare poorly with figures of 410 and 323, respectively.India seems to be better off in comparison with immediate neighbours, Pakistan has a higher prison population rate at 44, while Nepal is at 65, Sri Lanka is at 78 and Bangladesh is at 48. China too is at a much higher 118 compared with India.United States also tops the chart of the highest numbers of prisoners at 2,145,100, followed by China at 1,649,804 and Brazil 672,722. India came in at number five with 419,623.What is noteworthy is the fact that the majority of Indians in jail are not convicted criminals, but people awaiting completion of trial -- at 67.2% against 20.3% in the United States and 36.2% in Brazil.When it comes to occupancy, it is Haiti that has the dubious distinction of having the maximum occupancy at 454% capacity, according to ICPR. The United Nations has condemned the situation, saying inmates in Haiti are subject to "daily violations" of their fundamental rights, mostly stemming from egregious prison overcrowding resulting from the overuse of lengthy preventive detentions.India, meanwhile, comes in at number 86 out of 205 countries whose data is available. The occupancy rate of Indian prisons is 114% -- higher than the United States’ 104%.Noting the poor condition of prison infrastructure and facilities, the Supreme Court last month asked the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) to look into the issue of overcrowding (more inmates in comparison with the sanctioned strength) of prisons in the country and furnish figures before it regarding the population in those jails where occupancy was over 150% as on December 31 last year. The top court was hearing a matter relating to inhuman conditions prevailing in 1,382 prisons across the country.READ ALSO: Reform prisons - Reduce incarceration periods for undertrials who have not been convictedOvercrowding in prisons refers to those jails where occupancy rate is more than 100. According to the Prison Statistics India 2015 report, D&N Haveli is at the top in terms of overcrowding in prisons (276.7%) followed by Chhattisgarh (233.9%) and Delhi (226.9%). Tackling overcrowding and under-staffing is clearly the need of the hour.The court earlier also expressed shock at the large number of people languishing in jails in "complete violation" of their rights despite recommendations for their release by the legal services authority and termed the situation as unacceptable.In September last year, the apex court, also passed an order on the issue of custodial deaths and said this was a crime and such incidents indicated the "apparent disdain" of the state to the life and liberty of prisoners. It passed a slew of directions over unnatural deaths and on prison reforms across India.