Union Budget 2026–27 And India's Prisons: Modernisation, Support Or Implementation Gaps
T. Moshvica, Gujarat National Law University
The Union Budget 2026-27 was introduced this year on February 1st 2026 revolving around the fiscal priorities around themes of growth, employment, infrastructure, technology-enabled governance, and sets out major initiatives across economic and social sectors (Ministry of Finance, 2026). Within the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) Demands for Grants, Demand No. 51 (Police) contains only two points explicitly related to prisons and correctional administration. Under this demand, a central sector scheme titled 'Modernisation of Prisons' has a Budget Estimate (BE) of about ₹300 crore for 2026–27, almost entirely classified as capital expenditure (Ministry of Finance, 2024). Under the same demand, a revenue head 'Support to Poor Prisoners' has a BE of ₹5 crore and a Revised Estimate (RE) of ₹1.5 crore for 2024–25, and a BE of ₹2 crore for 2026–27, making it one of the smallest identifiable prison- related revenue allocations in the Union accounts (Ministry of Finance, 2024).Constitutionally, 'prisons' lie in the State List, so State Governments bear primary responsibility for prison administration, infrastructure and recurrent expenditure, while the Union supplements these efforts through model laws, policy guidance and centrally supported schemes . Against this background, this article enquires two critical questions about the 2026–27 budget's prison provisions:
1.How does the Modernisation of Prisons allocation flow through the Union and State systems?
2.How is the Support to Poor Prisoners scheme designed and implemented for Union and States.
Official Diagnosis: What Needs Are These Schemes Meant to Address?
The Rajya Sabha Standing Committee on Home Affairs, in its report Prison - Conditions, Infrastructure and Reforms, uses Prison statistics India 2023 (PSI-2023) and state submissions to describe Indian prisons as marked by sustained overcrowding, high undertrial proportions, staff shortages and inadequate health and mental-health services .The Standing Committee notes that several states did not receive funds from their own prison departments and that eight states did not receive any central prison funding over the period reviewed, indicating fragmented and weak financing . It recommends enhanced allocations for infrastructure and staffing and calls for dedicated funds to pay fines and bail amounts for indigent prisoners, directly linking under-funding to prolonged undertrial detention (Parliament of India, 2023).PSI-2023 records an all-India occupancy rate around 120–121 per cent in 2023, with roughly 5.5 lakh prisoners against a sanctioned capacity of about 4.6 lakh, and undertrials constituting about three-quarters of the prison population (National Crime Records Bureau, 2024). Overcrowding is concentrated: Delhi operates at close to 200 per cent, and states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya have occupancy levels around or above 150 per cent, while Telangana and several smaller states and union territories run below full capacity (National Crime Records Bureau, 2024).India Justice Report 2025 (IJR-2025) constructs a composite 'prisons pillar' from official data on occupancy, staff strength and vacancies, budget, legal aid and selected welfare indicators. Among large states, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh rank highest on this pillar, while Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttarakhand occupy lower positions, with Uttarakhand last among large states (India Justice Project & Tata Trusts, 2025). Taken together, the aforementioned shows that India's prison deficits are primarily human and procedural in nature. So, the article closely enquires the below mentioned questions.
