For Delhi prisoners, parole period will not be considered part of sentence served

NEW DELHI: Convicts in Delhi will no longer be able to use parole to make their stay in jail shorter than that required by law. The city government has updated the Delhi jail manual, making the parole period to be not counted as part of the sentence served from November 1.

Till now, the time spent outside prison on parole was considered part of the sentence period, and many prisoners who got parole — especially the moneyed and the influential — enjoyed portions of their sentence period in relative freedom.

“Some influential prisoners have been misusing this provision by engaging the best of the lawyers and getting permissions for a high number of paroles. While ordinary prisoners come out once in a year or sometimes not even that, influential inmates get parole multiple times in a year,” said Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra. The new jail manual will streamline the process and check such misuse,” Mehra said.

Under the new jail manual, prisoners will also be given beds, hygiene kits as soon as they enter the prison and a separate jail will be dedicated to the first-time offenders so that they do not come under the influence of hard-core criminals.

Special food for lactating, pregnant prisoners

Besides, special nutritional foods will be provided to lactating mothers, pregnant prisoners and children under six years of age.

From November 1, each day spent by an inmate outside the jail will see a corresponding day added to the time to be spent in prison before release. A source said that some high-profile prisoners, who have been sentenced to life in Tihar, have used parole and furloughs to remain outside jail for months in a year. Paroles are usually of one month, but in some cases, these can exceed two months.

A convict is allowed two kinds of leaves — paroles and furlough. Conditional to good conduct in jail, convicts can avail of the latter for attending family functions, funerals, etc.

A convict is generally allowed two paroles and three furloughs in a year. Furloughs are given in three spells. The first furlough of the year is for three weeks, the second and the third furloughs are for two weeks each.

Furloughs will continue to be counted as part of the sentence under the new jail manual as in the past.

The updated jail manual, notified in the second week of October, will serve as the guiding code for jails and will regulate lives of prisoners – both undertrial and convicts.

With a focus on hygiene and food, rights of prisoners, modernisation and prison computerisation, provisions for children of women prisoners, prisoners’ reforms, access to free legal services — some of which are already being enjoyed by the prisoners in Delhi – the Delhi Jail Manual runs into 515 pages divided into 36 chapters. Earlier the jails were guided by Delhi Prisons Rules 1988.