Published Online:July 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Law Review
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IUPLR040725
DOI:10.71329/IUPLR/2025.15.3.49-59
Author Name:Sucheta Banerjee and Sumedha Banerjee
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Law
Download Format:PDF
Pages:49-59
The right to health—including mental health—is a fundamental human right, accessible to all individuals from birth, regardless of caste, faith or background. However, it is frequently observed that inmates’ mental healthcare needs—a crucial aspect of their right to wellbeing —are constantly being jeopardized as a result of the physical and psychological abuse inflicted on them by the prison officials, most likely because of lack of training for them and the inadequate health infrastructure in the prison. As a result, many inmates commit self harm and are further rendered incapable of leading healthy and respectable lives after being released from prisons. This paper explores the mental health challenges experienced by prisoners in India and reviews the existing support systems, legal frameworks, and healthcare policies available to them. It highlights the models and therapeutic approaches that could be effectively implemented to provide mental healthcare for the incarcerated population, with a special reference to the prisons of Howrah district in West Bengal, India.
Mental health forms an important aspect of wellbeing but, unfortunately, it gets short shrift in many countries, including India. Worse still, early treatment of serious mental illnesses is not given priority.2 Irrespective of what our prison manuals, the Indian constitution, and International Treaties say about prisons being reformatory environments, they are, in fact, places with a centuries-long history of security surveillance and mistrust.