India, Aug. 24 -- Himachal Pradesh's prisons are operating nearly 30 per cent above their sanctioned capacity, with 3,355 inmates lodged across 14 jails against a capacity of 2,580, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu informed the state Assembly on Monday, August 24.

The figures, provided in a written reply to Congress MLA Keval Singh Pathania, show that the state's prisons are accommodating 775 more inmates than their approved capacity.

Of the total inmates, 1,113 are convicts, 2,203 are undertrials and 39 are civil or preventive detainees, Sukhu said.

The overcrowding is particularly pronounced at some of the state's major prisons. The Model Central Jail in Nahan has 553 inmates against a capacity of 471, while the Model Central Ja...