THE prison system continues to be plagued by a paucity of medical treatment facilities. In the past four years, 1,300 prisoners have died in jail custody — 839 in hospital and 461 on the way to hospital, official data show. The figures show that 291 inmates died in jail custody in 2021, 213 in 2022, 367 in 2023, 306 in 2024 and 123 in the first 11 months of 2025. There is a persistent pattern to the death of prisoners. They collapse because of illness, which often points to gaps in adherence to human rights. A former inspector general of prisons has said that prisoners often suffer stress, tension and trauma, which may trigger heart attacks, calling for urgent medical attention. They are mostly then taken to hospital, where they die either there or on their way. An assistant inspector general of prisons in charge of development explains the lower number of deaths this year by saying that jail physicians were not transferred through lobbying during the tenure of the interim government, which was a practice common under previous political governments. The physicians deputed from the civil surgeon’s office now stay in jail postings.
This suggests that the absence of physicians in prisons is a major cause for prisoners’ deaths. With heart attacks reportedly being a major reason, many of the deaths could be avoided with immediate medical attention. But the 74 prisons now have only 99 physicians, all deputed by the civil surgeon’s offices. The prisons department has only two dedicated physicians against 148 sanctioned positions. The situation, as New Age reported on November 30, has reached a pass where prison hospitals do not have physicians available to pronounce death. The department has 23 ambulances, often forcing authorities to take patients to hospital in pick-ups, but it needs 44 more to provide inmates with emergency care. The authorities further say that overcrowding may also be contributing to inmates falling ill. The 74 jails — 15 central and 59 district — can accommodate 43,157 inmates, but held 78,894 — 57,688 under trial and 21,206 convicted — as of November 29. Whilst the prison authorities say that the prison population may even reach 90,000, the former inspector general says that in many prisons, nine or more inmates are kept in a room meant for three. All this increases the risk of illness.
Such a plight of the prisons is nothing new as the media have published reports on inadequate medical treatment in prisons on many occasions. Yet the plight has continued. The government should therefore equip the prison system with the required number of medical staff and ambulances, in the short term, and modernise the system to ensure the rights and safety of prisoners.
