Parole during covid-19 (Release a prisoner)

Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states have started releasing prisoners on parole following a Supreme Court order to curb the spread of coronovirus. These include criminals who have been sentenced to seven years or less.

More than 400 prisoners of Tihar Jail have been released due to relaxation in bail norms by a high-powered committee in Delhi, while Uttar Pradesh has granted bail to 11,000 inmates.

main point:

The Supreme Court, referring to the statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau, said in its order that there are about 466084 prisoners in 1339 jails in the country, which is 117.6% more than the capacity of the jails.

It is noteworthy that in 2010, during the UPA government, the then Law Minister Veerappa Moily started the program of release of undertrials on parole / bail on charges of petty crime with the aim of reducing the number of prisoners in jails.

Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure:

Under this, a prisoner can be released on bail or parole if he has completed half of the sentence prescribed in the law for his alleged crime. However, this benefit cannot be given to the undertrials who are accused of indulging in any crime which has the provision of capital punishment or any other explicit provision.

Number of Undertrial Inmates in Jails:

Significantly, about 82% of prisoners in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and possibly all over India are under trial.

The Delhi High Court has admitted that these prisoners fall under the accepted jurisprudence of sentencing under seven years of age and are involved in bodily harm considered non-heinous.

Currently a major challenge before the jail administration is to reduce the number of undertrial prisoners with the help of the judiciary. For which the following steps are being taken:

New jails are being constructed to reduce congestion.

Entering timely appeals before the court under an under trial so that the trial does not take long due to the absence of the prisoner.

Special courts are being organized regularly in the Tihar court premises for the disposal of minor offenses where every third Saturday the court has to confess its crime before the magistrate.

The trial court is being resorted to release the case of seriously ill prisoners on bail as per law.

Guidelines have been issued to the jail superintendents to ensure that no prisoner is unnecessarily detained by staff due to an error in the case with reference to the release warrant.

In the context of convicts, the executive privilege principle of sentencing within one to six months is being followed.

This reflects a normative and balanced approach, both of which emphasize the need to combat crime and prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.

However, the facts accepted by the Delhi High Court raise questions on the tracking of prisoners released on bail. While most prisoners will follow their bail conditions and report regularly to local police stations, there will also be some who will not comply with bail conditions and reporting to the local police station.

Release and tracking of prisoners:

Even under normal circumstances, the police and jail authorities have no reason and rule to track prisoners released on parole or released on bail as it is impossible to track them.

Inmates have a legal obligation to comply with the conditions of bail / parole. Under which they are being released, so the responsibility to act according to the law is completely dependent on them.

If these conditions are violated in any way, the release order can be canceled directly and it can become a point of denial of bail against the person in future.

Prison Statistics-2018 (Prison Statistics-2018) Report

According to this report released by the National Crime Records Bureau- NCRB of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the number of absconders was only 343 (1.1%) out of 31297 prisoners released on parole. While the police succeeded in arresting 150 of them.

Reports state that about 99% of prison inmates follow parole conditions. Apart from this, the police administration is able to track some remaining absconding people.

Technology support for tracking prisoners:

Technology can be used to track the prisoners and report them to the local police stations at regular intervals, so that their current activities can be reported to the local police station and to ensure that they remain under pressure while under self-surveillance. So that they remain crime-free and maintain peace.

Preventing community spread of COVID-19:

Releasing jailed inmates during the COVID-19 epidemic is a positive step from a medical point of view as in contrast to the concentration of migrant workers, isolation of prisoners will play a key role in preventing the community spread of COVID-19 in India.

Changes of jails to quarantine wards:

After the prisoners released on parole / bail, the free space in the jails as a safe quarantine ward for inmates who come under the category of heinous crimes.

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