The move, following the SC’s order, has been widely welcomed.
New Delhi: As the Covid-19 outbreak spreads across India, many jails in the country have decided to release prisoners, either on parole or interim bail, in order to contain the infection. Health professionals have welcomed the move as an essential step to prevent community transmission through overcrowded prisons.
The Maharashtra government has decided to release about 11,000 prisoners, whose sentence period is less than seven years, on parole. The announcement was made by state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh this week. There are some 60 prisons in the state, where this decision will be implemented.
Delhi’s Tihar jail also has decided to release around 3,000 inmates. Of these, 1,500 convicts will be released on parole and other 1,500 undertrials on interim bail. The UP government, too, has decided to start the process to free about 10,000 jail inmates.
This follows the Supreme Court’s order this week asking all states and Union Territories to set up high-level committees which could consider releasing all convicts who have been jailed up to seven years on parole to decongest jails in an attempt to contain the Covid-19 outbreak. A Bench, led by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, suggested that undertrials awaiting trials for entailing maximum sentence of seven years also be extended a similar benefit. The order said the undertrial review committee must meet every week.
The move has been widely welcomed. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, prison reformer Vartika Nanda said this is a good step which will help decongest the jails in order to contain the spread of corona. “This is a crisis situation and therefore, the decision to decongest the jails is a welcome move. But we will have to ensure that the loopholes, which are there in the present system, are plugged once the crisis is over. We act fast when it comes to imposing restrictions in such situations but we do not act on adding the facilities, which is needed to improve the condition of jails, with the same pace once normalcy is restored.
Looking at the possible threat of transmission, the Supreme Court Bench suggested maximum possible distancing among the prisoners, including the undertrials. “We also direct that the prison specific readiness and response plans must be developed in consultation with medical experts,” the Bench added.
It also suggested creation of isolation wards, quarantine of new prisoners, preliminary examination of prisoners, availability of medical assistance, scanning of staff and other service providers at entry points, sanitization and cleanliness of prison campus, supply of masks, barring or limiting or personal visits for prisoners and suspension of group activities.
Some states like Delhi and Kerala have already set up isolation wards within their prison premises. The Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, which has 3,700 inmates against the capacity of less than 1,000, has set up 20 isolation cells for those with Covid -19 symptoms.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) also put out guidelines for prisons around the world, where “huge mortality rates” are expected from Covid -19, unless they take immediate action. Some of the measures include airport-style testing and health assessments of staff and new admissions, keeping the staff well-informed and guaranteeing human rights in the facilities.
According to the latest statistics, there are 1,339 prisons, with more than 4.66 lakh inmates. In those, the occupancy rate is at 117.6%.