India’s Overcrowded Jails Pose a Serious Health Risk to Inmates
As Herpes Outbreak Kills Seven at Jalpaiguri Central Correctional Home, the Public Health Crisis in India’s Prisons Demands Urgent Attention
The public health crisis in India’s prisons is distinguished by its poorer infrastructure and a general disregard for treating ailments until they become inconvenient. A prisoner does not lose the right to health—a point courts have repeatedly stressed. Yet, between August 20, 2025, and March 9, 2026, around 92 inmates at the Jalpaiguri Central Correctional Home were infected with herpes simplex virus (HSV) and seven of them died.
This is not an isolated tragedy. It is a symptom of a systemic failure that extends across the country, affecting hundreds of thousands of prisoners who are held in conditions that make them more vulnerable to disease, more likely to suffer severe outcomes, and less likely to receive adequate care. The right to health, enshrined in the Constitution and repeatedly affirmed by the courts, remains theoretical for the vast majority of India’s prison population.
The Herpes Outbreak: A Preventable Tragedy
HSV is common in the general population. For most people, it is a manageable condition. But in immunocompromised or overcrowded populations with poor care, it can lead to encephalitis, which is often fatal. The Jalpaiguri Home’s 171 per cent occupancy rate rendered good hygiene and isolation a luxury that the facility could not afford.
When a facility is designed for a certain capacity and operates at nearly double that number, every aspect of life is compromised. Sleeping spaces shrink to the bare minimum. Ventilation becomes inadequate. Hygiene becomes impossible to maintain. Disease spreads more rapidly, and isolation—the most basic tool for containing an outbreak—is not an option when every square inch is occupied.
The result, in Jalpaiguri, was the deaths of seven men who might have survived had they been held in conditions that met even the most basic standards of decency.
The Scale of Overcrowding
Jalpaiguri is not an outlier. According to the 2023 Prison Statistics of India, district prisons in West Bengal have reported occupancy rates exceeding 160 per cent. Some facilities, such as the Kandi Sub-Jail, have historically reached staggering levels of over 400 per cent.
These numbers are not abstractions. They represent human beings sleeping on floors, sharing cells designed for a fraction of their current population, living in conditions that would be condemned if found in any other context. Overcrowding is a persistent fact of India’s correctional facilities, and it is the root cause of most of the health crises that afflict them.
The problem is national in scope. In 2023, 30 per cent of inmates in 10 prisons in Kerala were found to have skin diseases caused by humidity and a lack of personal space. A 2023 study in The Lancet Public Health found prisoners in India five times more likely to develop tuberculosis than the general population. In 2025, the Home Ministry ordered prison screening camps as unventilated environments allow TB to spread rapidly. The Nagpur and Indore central jails had major COVID-19 outbreaks.
The Disease Burden
The health challenges in India’s prisons extend far beyond the immediate crisis at Jalpaiguri. According to the India Justice Report 2025, HIV prevalence among inmates is significantly higher than the national average due to shared equipment and inadequate screening at entry. Tuberculosis, as noted, is five times more common among prisoners than in the general population. Skin diseases are rampant in facilities with poor hygiene and overcrowding.
These diseases do not exist in isolation. Overcrowding weakens immune systems through stress and poor nutrition. Lack of ventilation allows airborne diseases to spread. Shared equipment—razors, toothbrushes, tattooing implements—facilitates the transmission of blood-borne pathogens. Inadequate screening means that new entrants bring diseases into the prison population, and inadequate treatment means that diseases that could be managed become deadly.
The Healthcare Gap
Mandatory, comprehensive medical screening could catch many of these infections before they become injurious. But screening requires personnel, and the facilities are severely understaffed. The India Justice Report 2025 flagged a 43 per cent vacancy rate for medical officers, resulting in the number of inmates per doctor being 2.6 times higher than recommended by the Model Prison Manual.
There are also only 25 psychologists for India’s 5.7 lakh inmates. Mental health, which is often exacerbated by the conditions of confinement, receives almost no attention. Substance abuse, which is both a cause and a consequence of criminal behaviour, goes untreated. The result is a prison population that is sicker, more traumatised, and less equipped to reintegrate into society than when they entered.
The Legal Framework
The courts have repeatedly affirmed that prisoners do not lose their right to health. Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty, and the Supreme Court has interpreted this to include the right to health. In numerous judgments, the Court has held that the state has an obligation to provide adequate medical care to those in its custody.
But legal rights mean little without implementation. The gap between what the courts have said and what is happening in prisons across the country is vast. The Jalpaiguri deaths are a reminder that the state’s obligations are not being met.
The Model Prison Manual
The Model Prison Manual, which sets standards for prison administration, provides guidance on everything from capacity limits to medical staffing. But the Manual is not binding, and many states have not adopted its recommendations. Even where they have, enforcement is weak.
Filling the gap in healthcare requires integrating prisons into the National Health Mission, ensuring a sufficient number of health workers trained to manage outbreaks, and enforcing the Manual’s standards uniformly across states. These are not radical proposals. They are basic requirements for any correctional system that aspires to meet constitutional standards.
Solutions Beyond Health
As West Bengal’s actions in 2020 illustrate, the solutions are not confined to health. When the state temporarily released thousands of under-trials to relieve overcrowding in the South 24 Parganas District Correctional Home and the Baruipur Central Jail, it demonstrated that overcrowding is not an immutable fact but a policy choice.
The vast majority of inmates in Indian prisons are under-trials—people awaiting trial, not yet convicted of any crime. Many of them are in jail for minor offences that do not warrant pretrial detention. Expanding the use of bail, releasing under-trials on personal recognisance for minor offences, and expediting the repatriation of foreign nationals would significantly reduce overcrowding.
The judiciary must also play a role. Fast-tracking cases involving under-trials, ensuring that trials are completed within reasonable timeframes, and reducing the backlog of cases that keeps people in jail for years without conviction—all of these would reduce the population to something closer to capacity.
The Cost of Inaction
The cost of inaction is measured in lives lost. Seven men died at Jalpaiguri. Others will die in other facilities if nothing changes. But the cost is also measured in the suffering of the hundreds of thousands who survive their incarceration but carry the physical and psychological scars of their time in prison.
When prisoners are released, they return to their communities with diseases that could have been treated, with mental health conditions that could have been addressed, with the trauma of having survived conditions that no one should have to endure. This is not only a human rights issue; it is a public health issue that affects all of us.
Conclusion: A Constitutional Obligation
The state has a constitutional obligation to provide adequate healthcare to those in its custody. This obligation is not contingent on the availability of resources or the convenience of officials. It is fundamental to the right to life.
The Jalpaiguri outbreak is a reminder that this obligation is not being met. It is a reminder that overcrowding, understaffing, and neglect are not abstract problems but matters of life and death. And it is a reminder that the solutions are known: reduce overcrowding, increase medical staffing, integrate prisons into public health systems, and enforce standards.
The question is whether the state will act. The courts have spoken. The Constitution is clear. The evidence is overwhelming. What remains is the will to do what is necessary.
Q&A: Unpacking India’s Prison Health Crisis
Q1: What happened at the Jalpaiguri Central Correctional Home?
A: Between August 20, 2025, and March 9, 2026, around 92 inmates at the Jalpaiguri Central Correctional Home were infected with herpes simplex virus (HSV) and seven died. HSV is common in the general population but can lead to fatal encephalitis in immunocompromised or overcrowded populations with poor care. The facility had a 171 per cent occupancy rate, making good hygiene and isolation impossible—conditions that allowed the outbreak to spread and become deadly.
Q2: How widespread is overcrowding in Indian prisons?
A: Overcrowding is a persistent national problem. According to the 2023 Prison Statistics of India, district prisons in West Bengal have occupancy rates exceeding 160 per cent, with some facilities like Kandi Sub-Jail historically reaching over 400 per cent. The problem is not limited to West Bengal—in 2023, 30 per cent of inmates in 10 Kerala prisons had skin diseases from humidity and lack of space. Overcrowding is the root cause of most health crises in correctional facilities.
Q3: What health conditions are prevalent in Indian prisons?
A: Prisoners face significantly higher disease burdens than the general population. A 2023 Lancet Public Health study found prisoners in India five times more likely to develop tuberculosis than the general population. HIV prevalence among inmates is significantly higher than the national average due to shared equipment and inadequate screening. Skin diseases are rampant in overcrowded, poorly ventilated facilities. The Nagpur and Indore central jails had major COVID-19 outbreaks, highlighting the vulnerability of prison populations to infectious diseases.
Q4: What is the state of healthcare staffing in Indian prisons?
A: The healthcare system in prisons is severely understaffed. The India Justice Report 2025 flagged a 43 per cent vacancy rate for medical officers, resulting in the number of inmates per doctor being 2.6 times higher than recommended by the Model Prison Manual. There are only 25 psychologists for India’s 5.7 lakh inmates—a ratio that makes any meaningful mental health care impossible. Mandatory comprehensive medical screening, which could catch infections early, cannot be implemented without adequate personnel.
Q5: What solutions are needed to address the prison health crisis?
A: Solutions must address both the immediate healthcare gap and the underlying overcrowding. Healthcare improvements include integrating prisons into the National Health Mission, hiring sufficient medical officers and psychologists, and enforcing the Model Prison Manual’s standards uniformly across states. Overcrowding can be reduced by fast-tracking cases involving under-trials (who constitute the majority of inmates), expanding bail and non-custodial alternatives for minor offences, and expediting repatriation of foreign nationals. As West Bengal demonstrated in 2020, temporarily releasing under-trials can relieve overcrowding during emergencies—a model that could be adapted more broadly.
