Mental illness spread among death row prisoners in India: Study

India’s death row prisoners often belong to marginalized communities, and their pasts are likely to be marked by neglect, violence and adverse family circumstances, a study focused on the mental health of such prisoners found ‘deathable’ Gaya. The study, led by Maitreyi Mishra, founding member of Project 39A at the National Law University, Delhi, was released on Wednesday.

The findings add to the debate over India’s continued use of the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, as of 2020, India is one of only 55 countries to uphold the death penalty, while 109 have abolished it in law, 28 have used it for exceptional circumstances such as war crimes. The death penalty in the 2012 sexual assault and murder case made India one of 18 countries to be sentenced in 2020.

The study also raises questions about the behavior of prisoners during the death row: prisoners reported repeated physical and sexual assault and food refusal. Noting that prisoners’ life experiences do not excuse their crimes, the report highlights the marginalized, cognitive impairments and abuses that suffered most prior to alleged crimes, most of which were not considered by courts. Was.

“‘Rogue Criminals’ creates an easy narrative and takes a jibe at our desire for quick resolution and retaliation,” the report said.

decades of waiting

Of an estimated 388 prisoners serving the death penalty in India as of 2016, researchers were able to obtain permission to interview 88 from five states: Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. The report found that the sample interviewed was representative of India’s total population on death row.

Some of those interviewed had spent more than 20 years in prison and up to 15 years on the death penalty.

Thirty-three prisoners were convicted for murder, 26 for sex offences, and just five for terror offences. Of the 88 prisoners, 51 were under the age of 30 at the time of the alleged crime.

Nearly six out of 10 belonged to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes. One in three belonged to religious minorities. Almost one in five people had never been to school. A third of them were manual casual laborers at the time of their imprisonment.

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childhood trauma

Most of the prisoners interviewed in the study reported experiencing childhood abuse and traumatic life experiences. A large majority reported a turbulent family environment, 76% reported experiencing social adversity, 73% reported childhood neglect, and more than half reported childhood abuse.

About 65% had experienced physical assault, 47% reported that they had witnessed the sudden death of a close relative or friend, and 27% had experienced sexual assault or unwanted sexual experience. About 13% had seen a sudden, violent death early in life.

“Substantial and more research has indicated that many of the experiences presented ….—neglect and abuse during childhood, poverty, deprivation, troubled family environments—are underlying determinants of violence later in life,” the authors said.

The majority also had underlying intellectual disabilities, which, the researchers noted, can affect reasoning and judgment, as well as the ability to navigate the criminal justice system.

mental toll

In addition to the lasting toll of their own difficult lives, prolonged imprisonment and those on death row have further deteriorated the mental state of such prisoners.

In collaboration with NIMHANS, the researchers attempted to measure the prevalence of mental illness among 82 death row prisoners. Of those, 51 tested positive for at least one mental disorder, with depression, anxiety and substance abuse being the most prevalent, and 63 were experiencing suicidal thoughts.

One inmate said he attempted suicide after being told by a prison guard that his life was not worth living.

The report called for immediate intervention, and said the data on suicides was “cause of alarm”. The sense of hopelessness that comes from solitary confinement may be somewhat avoidable: at least 60% of prisoners have been acquitted or their death sentences commuted. Interviews were conducted.

(Rukmini S is a Chennai based journalist. Devangi Halder and Gandhar Joshi assisted with research for the piece.)