Shimla, Aug. 24 -- The Himachal Pradesh government informed the Legislative Assembly on Monday that the state prisons are overcrowded by nearly 30 per cent, with 3,355 inmates lodged against a sanctioned capacity of 2,580.

The figures were provided by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in a written reply to a starred question raised by Shahpur MLA Keval Singh Pathania, who sought details on prison capacity, inmate classification, medical facilities, NDPS prisoners and proposed expansion of prison infrastructure.

According to the government, the state's 14 prison facilities currently house 1,113 convicts, 2,203 undertrials and 39 civil or preventive detainees.

The data indicates that undertrials account for nearly two-thirds of the t...