Overview
- The Uttar Pradesh cabinet approved the new prisoner death and compensation policy on Wednesday, creating a state-level framework to pay families when inmates die of unnatural causes.
- The policy fixes compensation at ₹5 lakh for deaths tied to inmate fights, medical negligence, doctor shortages, poor prison medical facilities, or hospital treatment lapses and at ₹3 lakh for suicides in custody.
- Officials framed the change as a move to protect prisoner rights and bring transparency to jail administration by replacing the previous practice of waiting for National Human Rights Commission recommendations.
- At the same meeting the cabinet cleared construction of five district jails in Moradabad, Kanpur Nagar, Auraiya, Lalitpur and Bhadohi at an estimated total cost above ₹1,460 crore with Moradabad (2,000 capacity, ₹386.91 crore) and Kanpur Nagar (2,030 capacity, ₹384 crore) specified.
- The government did not publish rules for how payments will be administered or a timetable for building the jails, leaving questions about how quickly families will receive money and when new prison capacity will ease overcrowding.