While India has been pushing for a digital future even in the justice system, with virtual hearings often being recommended by courts, Bihar’s prison data reveals a starkly different reality. In 2024, the state produced prisoners in court a staggering 7,59,482 times — the highest in the country and nearly double the figure that Uttar Pradesh recorded, which houses 34,772 more inmates than Bihar, according to the latest Prison Statistics of India (PSI 2024) report. That makes it an average of 2075 trips a day in 2024. Nationally, inmates were taken to legal proceedings over 37.28 lakh times, with Bihar alone accounting for 20.4% of that total. While lack of proper digital infrastructure is one of the reasons behind so many court trips, experts also pointed to the high undertrial population and huge vacancies as major pain points.Despite a rapid shift toward digital infrastructure during the pandemic, many jails lack basic functional facilities. Criminal justice educator Kritika Swami explained: “On paper, many of the jails might have video conferencing facilities, but whether they are functional is the question. I have also come across prisons where there is a setup, but there is no experienced staff to monitor or operate the system. In some instances, the facilities might have encountered a glitch at some point, but it has not been fixed since then. Tier 2 and tier 3 cities also deal with the issue of accessibility.”Lack of infrastructure and glitches are only part of the problem; Bihar’s massive undertrial population drives these physical appearances to a large extent. Of the 51,990 inmates in the state, 45,339 (87.2%) are undertrials, as per the report released on May 8, 2026. This ranks Bihar second nationally, holding 12.2% of India’s total undertrial population. “Undertrials need to be produced more often in court. ” The higher the number of undertrials, the more trips to the courts would be needed,” said Swami, who is currently teaching at a private university in Sonipat. With 87.2% of its prisoners under trial, Bihar’s officials had to make 2075 court trips a day on average in 2024. “This adds to the lack of infrastructure. Also, due to the lack of police escort, there will always be less security than required on any given day,” she said.Saroj Giri, associate professor of political science at the University of Delhi, also agreed that the undertrials in the country’s prisons are a major concern. “Only high-profile cases of undertials make it to headlines at times, but there are so many people in this country awaiting justice and still languishing in prisons. This increases the pressure on the prison system,” said Giri.Despite judicial emphasis on bail being the norm, the number of undertrials continues to swell. The India Justice Report (IJR) 2025 notes that the proportion of undertrials spending one to three years in jail has increased by an average of 4.14 percentage points nationally. This stagnation has seen Bihar’s prison ranking plummet from 6th in 2019 to 12th in the latest report.Beyond courtrooms, Bihar’s inmates stepped out 10,686 times for medical care in 2024, contributing to a national total of 4.84 lakh medical visits. Managing these movements is an immense challenge given the state’s severe staffing crisis. Bihar currently holds the highest number of vacant prison posts in India, with 50.9% of its 9,349 sanctioned positions — 4,593 roles — lying empty as of December 2024.Experts argue that even the sanctioned strength is inadequate. For every prison staffer in Bihar, there are 10 inmates, but the ratio worsens significantly to one correctional staffer for every 195 inmates and one medical staffer for every 220. Leadership is also sparse; the state has no DIG-level officers for prisons despite two sanctioned posts and only two AIGs against a sanctioned strength of five.The underlying reasons boil down to two major issues. High undertrial population in the state, coupled with high vacancies. The solution? “The number of undertrials needs to come down, the sanctioned posts need to increase in our prisons, and those posts need to be filled,” Swami said and added that there needs to be better welfare benefits and at-par salaries for the prison staff as well.
