Highlighting a complete mismatch in approach towards prisoners by the Criminal Justice System and prison administration, the Supreme Court has said this dichotomy could be a major cause of large number of unnatural deaths of jail inmates every year. "What is practiced in our prisons is the theory of retribution and deterrence and the ground situation emphasises this, while our Criminal Justice System believes in reformation and rehabilitation (of prisoners) and that is why hand-cuffing and solitary confinement are prohibited", said a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta. Justice Lokur, writing the judgement for the Bench, said the rejection of Criminal Justice System-advocated reformation and rehabilitation policy by the prison authorities has resulted in "violence in prisons and eventually unnatural deaths". The Supreme Court quoted National Crime Records Bureau statistics to highlight large number of unnatural deaths in Indian prisons - 127 deaths (87 suicides) in 2012; 114 (70) in 2013; 195 (94) in 2014 and 114 (77) in 2015. The average suicide rate in prisons is over 50% more than the figure in normal conditions", it said.
The Supreme Court said: "The common person does not violate law for no reason at all. It is circumstances that lead a situation where there is a violation of law".
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