‘Most of the inmates in Sangareddy jail suffer from mental illness’

HYDERABAD: All is not well with the inmates of Sangareddy district jail. A ‘mental health screening’ conducted jointly by a professor of Osmania University and a counselling psychologist at the English and Foreign Language University (EFLU) has highlighted that a majority of inmates suffer from psychological issues like paranoia, depression, and are mentally unstable. The highlights were brought to light through a pilot study that was conducted in the district jail of Sangareddy in July to know about the mental health of the inmates.

A total of 181 inmates, including seven females, were screened as part of the survey. The report, prepared by Prof C Beena and Niranjan Reddy Challa, has been submitted to the prisons department for further action to treat the psychological disorders. Paranoia (77.90 per cent), was found to be the most common psychological condition that the inmates faced, followed by depression (62.43 per cent), and mania (51.93 per cent). Inmates suffering from hysteria and anxiety, however, are about 25 per cent. Around 30 per cent had psychological deviation.   

The data also highlights that the young in Sangareddy are more prone to committing crimes as a majority of the inmates — undertrials and convicted — are youngsters. An astounding 68.50 per cent of the total prisoners comprise the young in the age group of 18 - 35 years. Prisoners in 36-52 years are around 21 per cent and the old form 10 per cent.

Considerable second-time offenders

Surprisingly, the several reformative actions taken up by the Prisons Department in ensuring prisoners do not commit a second-time offence seems to be a failure. About 43 per cent of the prisoners have been lodged in the jail either ‘twice before’ or ‘more than twice’. A Narasimha, inspector general of State Prisons and Correctional Services observed that: “The results are not alarming as we receive several such reports from various agencies.”