Abstract

By May 2026, it is evident that a paradoxical trend prevails in the global carceral landscape. Despite the advocacy by international human rights standards of the “presumption of innocence,” the domestic laws of significant-level democracies, including India and Canada, exhibit a trend towards enhanced pre-trial detention. This research paper is a detailed comparative analysis of the reformative rights of undertrial prisoners detained in India and Canada awaiting trial. India’s Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has been replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, which establishes new thresholds for default bail under Section 479 and widens the limits of police custody. Canada faced a ‘remand crisis’ in which provincial jails mostly housed ‘legally innocent’ persons due to the implementation of Bill C-48, coupled with the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act of 2026. The paper utilises data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2025-2026 and Statistics Canada to examine the socio-economic marginalisation effects of caste in India and race in Canada on detention. The study analyses five landmark judgments, delivered between 2024 and 2026, to show that the current ‘process as punishment’ model violates the right to dignity. It recommends shifting away from custodial storage toward a “reformative-first” approach for all pre-trial detainees.